| Adolf Dehn | |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1895 |
| Birth Place: | Waterville, Minnesota, United States |
| Death Place: | New York City, New York, United States |
| Field: | Lithography, illustration, drawing, watercolors, casein painting |
| Training: | Minneapolis College of Art and Design
|
| Movement: | Regionalism, social realism, caricature |
| Awards: | Guggenheim Fellowship (2), National Academy of Design, American Academy of Arts and Letters |
Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles.
Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images.
After graduating as valedictorian from Waterville High School in 1914, he went to the Minneapolis School of Art[1] (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gág.[2] She was Dehn's first love and the two were "practically inseparable for the next five years... " (1916–1921).[3] In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest.[4]
In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists.[5] In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings.
Dehn found living in Europe cheap and was able to embark on artist adventures of what some consider the "glory years" of the 20s. About his time in Europe, he said, "Life in Paris is simply glorious."[6] He supported himself through his time in Europe by providing light-hearted cartoons and scenic European landscapes to editors back in the U.S. A number of the caricatures he drew depicting the Roaring 20s, burlesque, opera houses, and the café scene appeared in such magazines as Vanity Fair. Dehn himself felt that his caricatures and cartoons were different from others because his motives were "never really political" but more focused on social commentary.[7] The fame that Dehn achieved during his time in Europe, his illustrations appearing in many leftist publications such as The Liberator, The New Masses, and The Dial, was noted by hometown paper The Minneapolis Journal in 1925. The publication described Dehn as "being born with a pitchfork in his mouth" while commenting on the worldly nature of his drawings.[8]
His favorite medium was lithography, and he alternated between spoofing high society and creating beautiful landscapes. Throughout his time in Europe, Dehn was in contact with many other notable intellectuals and artists of the time, including Josephine Baker, Kurt Weill, and Leo Stein.[9] It was in Paris that Dehn met his first wife, Mura Ziperovitch (Mura Dehn), a dancer who had left revolutionary Russia. Upon his return to the U.S. the Chicago Tribunes Paris edition published a farewell to Dehn, stating, "We are sorry to see that Adolf Dehn is going back to America," marking the impression his presence made among the inhabitants of Montparnasse.[10]
In 1929 Dehn returned to New York City with his wife.[1] In New York, he began to focus his art on depicting scenes of Manhattan, showcasing the skyline and views of the city from the Staten Island Ferry.[11] As the Great Depression had taken hold of the country, Dehn and his wife were desperately poor, and their financial difficulties contributed to their ultimate divorce. In the 1930s, his work began to appear in magazines such as The New Yorker and Vogue. During his period as a lithographer, his striking images of New York, including Central Park, captured the essence of the Roaring 20s and the 1930s Depression.
Beginning in 1930, Dehn made numerous trips back to his home in Minnesota, where he could live cheaply, and he executed a significant number of drawings and lithographs based on Midwest scenes. He also summered on Martha's Vineyard from 1933 to 1936, often in the company of Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Georges Schreiber, and others in the vicinity of Gay Head and Menemsha, and joined by his girlfriend at the time, Eileen Lake.[12]
In the early 1930s, Dehn established The Adolf Dehn Print Club and became a founding member of the Associated American Artists. Prints magazine selected Dehn as one of the 10 best printmakers in the United States in 1936.
Dehn earned a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1939, which allowed him to travel to the western United States and Mexico. In the early 40s, he worked as an instructor of etching and lithography at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and received a citation from the U.S. treasury department for "Distinguished Service Rendered in Behalf of War Savings Program."
Dehn started executing watercolors in late 1936, admitting he had "been afraid of color" in the first decades of his career.[13] He rose to the top tier of American watercolorists in short order, seen in a feature article on his landscape watercolors in Life magazine (August, 1941) and a traveling show organized by the Museum of Modern Art, "Four American Water Colorists" (1943–44) in which eleven Dehn watercolors were joined with the works of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Charles Burchfield. Dehn's watercolors were described to have a "homely poetry with a modern sensitiveness."[14] Watercolor painting and casein painting represented signature second and third arms of Dehn's artistic output for the rest of his career.
In 1944, Dehn met Virginia Engleman, who was working in the Associated American Artists printshop. The couple married in 1947 and enjoyed an artistic collaboration for the rest of his life. In the 1940s, Dehn began to sell more lithographs and to teach other American artists lithography techniques. In 1947 he joined the Society of American Graphic Artists, exhibiting his lithograph, Lake in Central Park, in the 32nd Annual Exhibition for $5.00. Dehn published his first book, titled Water Color Painting, in 1945. As he became more widely recognized and financially successful, he was able to travel extensively. As well as visiting and painting Key West and the southwestern region of the United States, he went to Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Afghanistan and other areas of the world. The wide range of subject matter found in his prints, drawings, and paintings reflects his travels. He was awarded a second Guggenheim Fellowship in 1951.
In 1961, Dehn was elected as a full academician to the National Academy of Design, and in 1965 he was elected as a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He visited Paris for the last time in 1967, where he worked at the Atelier Desjobert.
Dehn died in New York City on May 19, 1968, after suffering a heart attack.[15] He is remembered as a prolific artist of great range. His works are held in over 100 museums (including the National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery, Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art); over 25 museums hold extensive collections of his output. Many prominent galleries represented Dehn as his fame grew, and posthumously, among them Harmon-Meek Gallery and Thomas French Fine Art.
Dehn had a distinct style of illustration and painting. His drawings of this period exhibit freedom in line and form along with social satire. Dehn's landscapes suggest the grandeur of nature, and a signature element in them for which Dehn was praised was the magnificence of his clouds.
Many of Dehn's prints are made using tusche, a liquid lithographic medium which allows for fluid effects. He has been called the "Debussy of American lithography" and "Dean of American lithography" by printmaking experts Clinton Adams and Philadelphia Museum of Art's Prints and Drawings curator, Carl Zigrosser. With his art Dehn introduced new techniques that had never before been used in lithography, and was praised as one of the world's leading printmakers.
In an artist statement he wrote for an exhibit at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, Dehn said, "My paintings are my statement. What I have to offer as a painter is direct and simple and words are necessary to a greater understanding or enjoyment of them."[16]
Selected museum and other institutional collections holding Adolf Dehn paintings and/or prints as part of their permanent collections include the following.[17]
| Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, NC | |
| Albertina Museum | Vienna, Austria | |
| Albright-Knox Art Gallery | Buffalo, NY | |
| Arizona State University Art Museum | Tempe, AZ | |
| Art Institute of Chicago | Chicago, IL | |
| Art Museum of Western Virginia (now Taubman Museum of Art) | Roanoke, VA | |
| Audubon House and Tropical Gardens | Key West, FL | |
| The Baker Museum Artis-Naples | Naples, FL | |
| Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan | Alpena, MI | |
| Boca Raton Museum of Art | Boca Raton, FL | |
| British Museum | London, UK | |
| Brooklyn Museum | Brooklyn, NY | |
| Buffalo Bill Center of the West | Cody, WY | |
| The Butler Institute of American Art | Youngstown, OH | |
| Canton Museum of Art | Canton, OH | |
| Carnegie Museum of Art | Pittsburgh, PA | |
| Charles H. MacNider Art Museum | Mason City, IA | |
| Cincinnati Art Museum | Cincinnati, OH | |
| Colorado Springs Fine Art Center | Colorado Springs, CO | |
| Columbus Museum of Art | Columbus, OH | |
| Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens | Jacksonville, FL | |
| David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University | Providence, RI | |
| Davidson Art Center, Wesleyan University | Middletown, CT | |
| deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum | Lincoln, MA | |
| Detroit Institute of Arts | Detroit, MI | |
| El Paso Museum of Art | El Paso, TX | |
| Everhart Museum | Scranton, PA | |
| Fairfield University Art Museum | Fairfield, CT | |
| Farnsworth Art Museum | Rockland, ME | |
| Fayetteville Museum of Art | Fayetteville, NC | |
| Flint Institute of Art | Flint, MI | |
| The George Washington University Dimmock Gallery | Washington, DC | |
| Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia | Athens, GA | |
| Golisano Children's Museum of Naples | Naples, FL | |
| Grand Rapids Art Museum | Grand Rapids, MI | |
| Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA | Los Angeles, CA | |
| Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Washington, DC | |
| Hofstra University Museum | Hempstead, NY | |
| Illinois State Museum | Springfield, IL | |
| Indianapolis Museum of Art | Indianapolis, IN | |
| Jewett Arts Center, Wellesley College | Wellesley, MA | |
| Joslyn Art Museum | Omaha, NE | |
| Kalamazoo Institute of Arts | Kalamazoo, MI | |
| Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University | East Lansing, MI | |
| La Salle University Art Museum | Philadelphia, PA | |
| Le Sueur County Historical Society | LeCenter, MN | |
| Louisiana Arts & Science Museum | Baton Rouge, LA | |
| LSU Libraries, LSU | Baton Rouge, LA | |
| Luther College | Decorah, IA | |
| McNay Art Museum | San Antonio, TX | |
| Mead Art Museum, Amherst College | Amherst, MA | |
| Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University | Dallas, TX | |
| Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester | Rochester, NY | |
| Memphis Brooks Museum of Art | Memphis, TN | |
| The Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY | |
| Midwest Museum of American Art | Elkhart, IN | |
| Minneapolis Institute of Art | Minneapolis, MN | |
| Minnesota Historical Society | St. Paul, MN | |
| Minnesota Museum of American Art | St. Paul, MN | |
| Missouri State University Collection | Springfield, MO | |
| Mitchell Wolfson Collection | Miami Beach, FL | |
| Montclair Art Museum | Montclair, NJ | |
| Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute | Utica, NY | |
| Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri | Columbia, MO | |
| Museum of Art - DeLand | Deland, FL | |
| Museum of Fine Arts | St. Petersburg, FL | |
| Museum of Fine Arts Springfield Museums | Springfield, MA | |
| Museum of Modern Art | New York, NY | |
| National Gallery of Art | Washington, DC | |
| Naval History and Heritage Command Museums | Washington, DC | |
| New Britain Museum of American Art | New Britain, CT | |
| New Orleans Museum of Art | New Orleans, LA | |
| Newark Museum | Newark, NJ | |
| Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences (now Chrysler Museum of Art) | Norfolk, VA | |
| Norton Museum of Art | West Palm Beach, FL | |
| Ohio Wesleyan University Art Collection | Delaware, OH | |
| Paine Art Center and Gardens | Oshkosh, WI | |
| Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | Philadelphia, PA | |
| Philadelphia Museum of Art | Philadelphia, PA | |
| Philbrook Museum of Art | Tulsa, OK | |
| Plattsburgh State Art Museum, State University of New York | Plattsburgh, NY | |
| Portland Art Museum | Portland, OR | |
| Queens Museum | Queens, NY | |
| Radford University Art Museum | Radford, VA | |
| Roswell Museum & Art Center | Roswell, NM | |
| Saint Louis Art Museum | St. Louis, MO | |
| San Francisco Museum of Modern Art | San Francisco, CA | |
| São Paulo Museum of Art | São Paulo, Brazil | |
| Seattle, WA | ||
| Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska | Lincoln, NE | |
| Smithsonian American Art Museum | Washington, DC | |
| Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery | Washington, DC | |
| Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art | Loretto, PA | |
| Speed Art Museum | Louisville, KY | |
| Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas | Lawrence, KS | |
| Springfield Art Museum | Springfield, MO | |
| Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute, IN | |
| Syracuse University Art Galleries | Syracuse, NY | |
| Terra Museum of American Art (now closed) | Chicago, IL | |
| Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota | Duluth, MN | |
| Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University | Wichita, KS | |
| The University of Arizona Museum of Art | Tucson, AZ | |
| University of New Mexico Art Museum | Albuquerque, NM | |
| Virginia Museum of Fine Arts | Richmond, VA | |
| The von Liebig Art Center | Naples, FL | |
| Wadsworth Atheneum | Hartford, CT | |
| Walker Art Center | Minneapolis, MN | |
| Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science | Sioux Falls, SD | |
| Whitney Museum of American Art | New York, NY | |
| Wichita Art Museum | Wichita, KS | |
| Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University | Wichita Falls, TX | |
| Woodstock Artists Association and Museum | Woodstock, NY | |
| Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College | Beloit, WI | |
| Yale University Art Gallery | New Haven, CT | |
| Yellowstone Art Museum | Billings, MT |
Adolf Dehn exhibitions, 1915–2021:[18]
| 2021 | Dehn and Dehn: Selected Works of Adolf and Virginia Dehn | The Bundy Modern, Waitsfield, VT | May | |
| 2020 | People & Places | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | April | |
| 2019 | Engaging the Far West: Adolf Dehn's Colorado and Peter Hurd's New Mexico | D. Wigmore Gallery, New York, NY | December | |
| Adolf Dehn's New York | Delamar Hotels, Greenwich, CT | November | ||
| Terra Florida (4-artist show) | D. Wigmore Gallery, New York, NY | March | ||
| 2017 | A.D. Retrospective | Museum of Art, Deland, FL | July | |
| Adolf Dehn and the American Land | Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO | December | ||
| Adolf Dehn: Midcentury Manhattan | Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield, CT | January- April | ||
| Sheldon Swope Art Museum, Terra Haute, IN | June- August | |||
| Artist Book Foundation (at MASS MoCA), North Adams, MA | October | |||
| 2016 | Adolf Dehn: At Home and Far Afield | Tremaine Art Center, Suffield Academy, Suffueld, CT | January- March | |
| Adolf Dehn’s Pennsylvania | Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA | January- April | ||
| The Gentle Satire of Adolf Dehn | Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA | August- December | ||
| 2015 | A.D. in the Caribbean | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | April | |
| The Other Side of Midnight: Paintings and Prints by A.D. | Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana | June | ||
| Adolf Dehn: Landscapes | Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO | May | ||
| 2012 | Dehn’s Dames | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | December | |
| 2011 | Adolf Dehn: A Retrospective | Bonham Creative Arts Center, Manchester Community College, Manchester, CT | April- May | |
| 2010 | Landscapes from Around the World | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | April | |
| Adolf Dehn, Works on Paper | Burke Gallery, Plattsburgh State Art Museum, Plattsburgh, NY | April | ||
| 2009 | A Touch of Humor | William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT | June- July | |
| Adolf Dehn: Love, Labour, Leisure | Mercy Gallery, Richmond Art Center, The Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, CT | September- October | ||
| 2008 | Politically Incorrect with Adolf Dehn | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | January | |
| 2007 | Prints and Drawings | Asylum Hill Gallery, Hartford, CT | March | |
| 2005 | Adolf Dehn Winterscapes | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | December | |
| Works on Paper by Adolf Dehn | Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science, Sioux Falls, SD | December | ||
| 2004 | Adolf Dehn | Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO | September | |
| Adolf Dehn: The General Strike, 1926, Pastels of the Rhonda Valley | Susan Teller Gallery, New York, NY | July | ||
| 2003 | Adolf Dehn: Works from the Permanent Collection | Radford University Art Museum, Radford, VA | October | |
| 2002 | Love, Labor, Leisure | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | March | |
| March Exhibition at the Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ | ||||
| 2001 | Adolf Dehn in Afghanistan | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | November | |
| 1997 | A Visit to Tuscany | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | May | |
| 1996 | Nature & Human Nature: The Art of Adolf Dehn | Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA | January | |
| The Humor of Adolf Dehn | The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngtown, OH | March | ||
| Adolf Dehn: The Incurable Traveller, Lithographs 1922-1967 | Susan Teller Gallery, New York, NY | April | ||
| 1995 | Nature & Human Nature: The Art of A.D. | Louisiana Arts & Science Museum, Baton Rouge, LA | March | |
| Centennial: Adolf Dehn and the American Scene | James J. Hill House, Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul, MN | February | ||
| 1994 | Midwest Landscapes by Adolf Dehn | Spiva Center for the Arts, Missouri State University, Joplin, MO | February | |
| Funny People by Adolf Dehn | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | April | ||
| 1993 | Adolf Dehn | Melvin Art Gallery, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL | January | |
| The Colorado Work of Adolf Dehn | Elizabeth Schlosser Fine Art, Aspen, CO | February | ||
| Modernist Colorado Artists with a Special Focus on Adolf Dehn | Elizabeth Schlosser Fine Art, Aspen, CO | August | ||
| Adolf Dehn, The Butler Inst of American Art | Salem Branch Museum, Salem, OR | November | ||
| 1992 | Adolf Dehn Retrospective | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | March | |
| 1991 | Adolf Dehn | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | April | |
| Adolf Dehn: A Life’s Work 1992-1965 | Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL | November | ||
| 1990 | Adolf Dehn Retrospective | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | January | |
| Funsence: Satirical Drawings and Lithographs by Adolf Dehn | Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL | March | ||
| 1988 | Adolf Dehn and American Lithography between the Wars | James J. Hill House, Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul, MN | January | |
| Adolf Dehn: A Retrospective of Prints | Associated American Artists Galleries, New York, NY | February | ||
| 1987 | Adolf Dehn Retrospective / American Landscapes in Watercolor | Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY | January | |
| Adolf Dehn Watercolors | Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME | February | ||
| Scene and Satire Supreme: The Lithographs of Adolf Dehn | June 1 Gallery, Bethlehem, PA | November | ||
| The Social Graces 1905-41, group exhibition (4 Adolf Dehn works) | The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY | July | ||
| 1986 | Adolf Dehn Retrospective / American Landscapes in Watercolor | Traveling exhibition lent by Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | ||
| Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MN | February | |||
| Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, IL | April | |||
| Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX | June | |||
| Louisiana Arts & Science Museum, Baton Rouge, LA | August | |||
| Le Sueur County Historical Society, Waterville, MN | October | |||
| Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, SD | December | |||
| 1985 | Adolf Dehn Retrospective / American Landscapes in Watercolor | Traveling exhibition lent by Harmon-Meeks Gallery, Naples, FL | ||
| Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN | January | |||
| Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts (now Art Museum of Western Virginia), Roanoke, VA | March | |||
| Canton Art Institute (now Canton Art Museum), Canton, OH | May | |||
| Charles H. MacNider Museum, Mason City, IA | July | |||
| Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN | September | |||
| Zanesville Art Center, Zanesville, OH | October | |||
| Sheldon Swope Art Gallery (now Swope Art Museum), Terra Haute, IN | December | |||
| 1983 | Dehn and Dehn | Fine Arts America, Richmond, VA | February | |
| 1982 | Adolf Dehn and Eliot O’Hara | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL; traveling exhibition lent by Harmon-Meek Gallery | April | |
| Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI | June | |||
| Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN | July–August | |||
| Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY | November | |||
| 1981 | Adolf Dehn: The Memorial Retrospective | Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, FL | March | |
| 1979 | Adolf Dehn The Full Range | June 1 Gallery, Bethlehem, CT; represented by Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY | March | |
| 1977 | Adolf Dehn 1895-1965 Watercolors, Drawings, Lithographs | Jacques Baruch Gallery, Chicago, IL | January | |
| 1972 | The Many Faces of Adolf Dehn: Lithographs | June 1 Gallery, Bethlehem, CT | July | |
| 1970-1971 | Represented by Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY | |||
| 1969 | The Adolf Dehn Exhibition | Carlin Galleries, Fort Worth, TX | July | |
| Adolf Dehn, 1895-1968 | Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH | |||
| 1968 | Retrospective exhibition | Far Gallery, New York, NY | January | |
| Retrospective exhibition | The Century Association, New York, NY | February | ||
| Adolf Dehn Paintings and Lithographs | Capricorn Galleries, Bethesda, MD | March | ||
| 1966 | Watercolors by Adolf Dehn | The Museum of Fine Arts and Eastern States Exposition, Springfield, MA | September | |
| 1965 | New Watercolors | Milch Gallery, New York, NY | March | |
| American Landscape Drawings | Berkshire Museum, Lenox, MA | |||
| 1964 | Adolf Dehn Retrospective of Lithographs, 1920-1963 | Far Gallery, New York, NY | March | |
| Oils, Watercolors, and Prints of Adolf Dehn | Flair House Gallery, Cincinnati, OH | October | ||
| The Fabulous Decade | The Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, NJ | May | ||
| 1963 | The Lithographs of Adolf Dehn | University of Maine Art Gallery, Orono, ME | April | |
| 1962 | Lithographs by Adolf and Virginia Dehn | Gallery 10, New Hope, PA | April | |
| 26 New Lithographs by Adolf Dehn | Associated American Artist Galleries, New York, NY | April | ||
| 1961 | Adolf Dehn Retrospective | University of Missouri Art Department Gallery, Columbia, MO | February | |
| 1960 | New Casein Paintings | Milch Gallery, New York, NY | October | |
| 1958 | Thirty Years of Lithography | Krasner Gallery, New York, NY | February | |
| Adolf Dehn Retrospective | University of Missouri Art Department Gallery, MO | February | ||
| 1957 | New Paintings | Milch Gallery, New York, NY | March | |
| 1956 | New Paintings | Associated American Artists Galleries, New York, NY | February | |
| 1955 | Watercolors of Adolf Dehn | Carnegie Hall Gallery, University of Maine, Orono, ME | November | |
| 1953 | Adolf Dehn | Hudson Guild Gallery, New York, NY | November | |
| 1951 | Haitian World | Associated American Artists Galleries, New York, NY | November | |
| Thirty Lithographs of Adolf Dehn | University of Maine Gallery, Orono, ME | November | ||
| 1949 | Commemorative Exhibition of Adolf Dehn’s Twenty-five Years’ Work in Lithography | Associated American Artists Galleries, New York, NY | September | |
| 1948 | Exhibition | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY | ||
| 1947 | Lithographs by Adolf Dehn | Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC | February | |
| Adolph Dehn: New Lithographs | Associated American Artists Galleries, New York, NY | April | ||
| 1945 | ||||
| 1944 | Four American Watercolorists | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY | ||
| Naval Aviation | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY | January | ||
| 1943 | International Watercolor Exhibit (awarded first prize) | The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL | ||
| Naval Aviation | National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC | November | ||
| 1942 | Exhibition | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY | ||
| 1941 | The Satirical and the Lyrical | Associated American Artists Galleries, New York, NY | March | |
| 1940 | Watercolors by Adolf Dehn | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | ||
| 1939 | Solo exhibition | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | ||
| 1938 | First watercolor exhibition | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | ||
| Annual Exhibition | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY | |||
| 1935 | Solo exhibition | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | ||
| 1932 | Lithographs by Adolf Dehn | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | ||
| 1931 | Ink Drawings by Adolf Dehn | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | ||
| 1930 | Fifty New Lithographs by Adolf Dehn | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | April | |
| 1929 | Drawings and Lithographs by Adolf Dehn | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | February | |
| 1928 | Solo gallery exhibition | Paris, France | ||
| 1925 | Drawings by A.D. | Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | January | |
| 1923 | Group exhibition | Wurthle and Sohn Gallery, Vienna, Austria | ||
| First solo exhibition | The Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY | April | ||
| 1915 | First museum show (drawings) | Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN |