Jim Dine

Best known for his paintings, drawings and prints of hearts, tools, scissors, gates, robes, hair and skulls, Dine elevates ordinary objects into recurring multifaceted symbols. Yet his range is considerably broader, as this adventurous monograph reveals with the aid of 55 color plates and 70 black-and-whites. Cincinnati-born Dine burst on the New York art scene in 1959 as an environmental sculptor. Car Crash (1960), a performance piece, created a potent metaphor for danger and the omnipresent specter of death. Straw Heart (1966), a delicate, resonating sculpture, preceded his famous series of heart paintings. Dine's tree pictures of the early 1980s, reflecting his move to Vermont, evoke sensuous, spidery forms exuding an eerie allure. His recent mystical oils are crammed with a multitude of images, ranging from flowers to a bodhisattva (enlightened being). Feinberg, a curator at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, skillfully charts the twists and turns of Dine's career. (Oct.)