Exhibition of works by Dietrich

Born Dietrich Hermann Grunewald in Oskarström, Sweden, to a German textile engineer and his wife, the artist Dietrich (1916-2003) left his native country to come to America in 1938. Before establishing himself as a fine artist, he worked as an etcher and a portrait artist in San Francisco; a naval draftsman in the Pacific Northwest; a scenic designer in San Francisco and Hollywood; and a wallpaper and textile designer in West Hollywood. Twenty-five years after his arrival in the US, a six-day exhibition of his oil paintings in Beverly Hills drew record crowds, making it the largest private exhibition the city had ever witnessed and paving the way for his future success as a fine artist.

Today, his work spans multiple decades and mediums, encompassing oil paintings, serigraphs, drawings, etchings, portraits, illustrations, and scenic, textile and wallpaper designs. His range of subjects include flora fantasies, figures, landscapes, cityscapes, horses, sailboats and sporting scenes depicted through a harmonious interplay of color, shadow and light that informed over 2,000 works. Primarily known as a California artist, this is the first New York exhibition of Dietrich’s oils on canvas.