Page 25 - Studio International - September 1966

Dine, on the other hand, is warm, spontaneous and
straight. In his London and Dine-Paolozzi series he attempts
to dispel some of this reticence and sweetness by a bald
statement of fact: This is how things are. We are all
human under our genteel wrapper.
One has to acknowledge Jim Dine's sincerity in making
these works. They are not in the least lascivious, porno-
graphic or erotic. Scatological they may be, but there is
no hint of a snigger. They are perfectly in line with Dine's
other work, in which he takes ordinary objects (a suit, a
saw, a washbasin) and presents it, divorced from its
ordinary functions and surroundings, as something to be
regarded dispassionately for its own sake. In this case he
has taken the solitary scribblings of frustrated men or
rebellious adolescents, and, in a sense, redeemed them
by endowing them with style and a gentle humour.
Such being the temper of the times, however, it is not
unlikely that they will be treated with a solemnity which
they hardly deserve, and Dine's name linked with that
of Genet, Miller, Burroughs and Kenneth Tynan. But
these pictures are, after all, little more than a mild
protest, a gesture of independence: 'once again it's the
Right "sailor on leave" and it's the child's first time away from
Jim Dine
Tool Box No. 4 1966 home, that sort of thing.' Besides, they are not so very
Screen print and collage revolutionary; Duchamp and the Dadaists made the same
24 x 19 in.
Edition size 150 point a long time ago. They may cause embarrassment
Editions Alecto to some; if so, it will be on account of their sincerity.

Jim Dine
Dine-Paolozzi No. 2 1966
Collage
23 x 29 in.
Robert Fraser Gallery