Maynard Dixon (American, 1875-1946)
Dixon was a painter born in Fresno, California and considered to be one of the premier landscape painters of the American West. He began his career as a magazine illustrator in San Francisco, then traveled to the desert where he began painting the landscapes surrounding him. Dixon demonstrates a masterful command of value, color and composition. While elements of modernism and minimalism that are characteristic of the mid-century are evident in his painting, he abstained from any particular stylistic label, but helped bring Modernist painting styles to the West Coast.
Dixon married photographer Dorothea Lange in 1920. During the Great Depression, he focused on Social Realist work relating to strikes and displaced workers. He also painted murals and wrote poetry. Dixon’s work can be found in the Brigham Young University Art Museum, Salt Lake City, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington DC; and his former house in Tuscan, which operates as a museum of his studio.
