RICHARD W. DEMPSEY (1909 - 1987) Sargent Johnson Study.
Charcoal on cream wove paper, 1940. 635x470 mm; 25x18 1/2 inches. Initialed and dated in charcoal, upper left.
Provenance: the estate of the artist.
Exhibited: Richard Dempsey: 1940 and the Sargent Johnson Legacy, The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Washington, DC, April 26-June 30, 1985.
Richard Dempsey was born in Ogden, Utah, on September 14, 1909. His youth was spent in Oakland, CA where he attended Sacramento Junior College (1929-31) as an art major and then studied at The California School of Arts and Crafts (1932-34) and the Students Art Center (1935-40). It was during 1930s, under the influence of his teacher, sculptor Sargent Johnson, that Dempsey's work evolved from being representational to abstract. This shift to a Cubist-derived abstraction after studying with Johnson was the focus of a 1985 exhibition held in 1985 at the Evans-Tibbs Collection in Washington, DC. This work is illustrated in the exhibition brochure.
