Born 1895, Waterville, Minnesota
Died 1968, New York City

Someone once referred to Dehn as the “dean of American lithographers.” Lithography was not his only passion, within art or without, but with an output of 665 known works in the medium of prints, almost all are lithographs. He authored several books of which How to Draw and Print Lithographs from 1950 is key. He experimented and perfected techniques of working on the stone, such as using a razor blade to achieve good whites, that were followed by many other lithographers.

His early studies at the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) were followed by a move to New York City in 1917 and study with Boardman Robinson and Kenneth Hayes Miller at the Art Students League. He was accompanied by Minneapolis classmate Wanda Gag. Other Minneapolis classmates, such as Arnold Blanch, joined them a year later. Dehn wanted to go to Europe to study, but lack of funds held him back until 1921.  Mean while, he learned the basics of lithography from George Miller, who remained Dehn’s New York printer for the rest of his career. (Other printers come on the scene later.)  In New York he and Wanda Gag had a close romantic interest, but she was unable to follow him to Europe.

Once off the freighter in Europe, he traveled and finally settled in Vienna where he met a Russian refugee dancer - Mura Ziperovitch and in 1926 she became his first wife.

Dehn’s early work in Europe has a theme somewhat of “life as a satire”. He frequented the parks and the streets, the museums and especially (like many of his age) the evening places. All ended up as subject of prints with a characteristic “Dehn slant”. Vienna became too expensive so it was off to Berlin where life was less costly. He tried to do similar work in Berlin but the print shops were not up to the quality he wanted so production was very little. By 1928 he made it to Paris and was making lithographs at the atelier of Edmond Desjobert, who remained always as Dehn’s favorite printer. After Desjobert’s death, he was no longer satisfied with the Atelier’s quality unless he looked over the shoulder of the printer on every print (and they didn’t care for Dehn because of that).

Written advice was received in 1928 from Carl Zigrosser of the Weyhe Gallery that Dehn’s subject matter was getting into a rut of sorts. Both men were preparing for an exhibition of Dehn’s work at Weyhe for 1929. This advice went unheeded at first but after his return to the United States in early 1929, Dehn began to broaden his subject matter. He returned to the Midwest in the 1930’s and we then find an interest in landscape and rural scenes. (A journey similar to that made by Benton and Curry.) He developed an interest in watercolor.

During the depression he was a member of the New York Public Works Art Project and in a bit of entrepreneurship launched the “Adolf Dehn Print Club”, where, for a subscription you would have mailed to you from time to time a new litho for five dollars. A small number were issued and the idea was short lived. Mura and Adolf were divorced in 1933 for unknown reasons.

Teaching jobs opened up toward the end of the 1930’s. He taught for three years at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (run by Boardman Robinson). Here he met artist and printer Lawrence Barrett who printed many of Dehn’s Colorado lithographs including the commission for a 20 print folio done on “Selected Tales of Guy DeMaupassant”. (Available from us - inquiries welcome.)

In 1947 he married Virginia Engleman, an artist herself and they were together until his death. In his last two decades Dehn turned to color lithographs. The color print work followed the traditions of Pop Hart and Emil Ganso, especially the works done incorporating scenes from his travels in the Caribbean and the Mideast.

Dehn produced works until his death from a heart attack on May 19, 1968. He was a member of many art groups and societies including the National Academy. His exhibition list beginning in 1920 in voluminous. His works are held by many institutions. The largest collection Dehn prints is in the Minnesota Historical Society, which was the publisher of the key reference to Dehn prints - The Prints of Adolf Dehn, 1987 by Joycelyn Lumsdaine and Thomas O’Sullivan.