A vibrant exhibition program was started, as were numerous educational lectures on a wide variety of topics. In the museum was a collection focusing on his achievements as a painter. Dodge was largely self-taught and his early work demonstrates his love for the art of the Renaissance, the work of Picasso, and the Surrealist movement. .
The Hour of Parting is one of Dodge's early works and from my standpoint you could really tell that this was one of his first pieces. The picture has a low verisimilitude and it consists of a man sitting down in what looks like a cave. The man sitting down is wearing a cone shaped hat that has a white ring on the bottom, a white ball on top, and white polka dots all over it. There is another figure to the right of the sitting man. I cannot distinguish what he is doing. Hour of Parting was painted in 1942 and the influence of Picasso must have been very high on Dodge. The palette is of very warm colors that do not make a great contrast anywhere except the hat on the sitting fellow. There are not many distinct lines made from the mixed media of the oil paint, pastels, and ink indicating more of an influence from Picasso. This is just one of the many styles Dodge used.
Just one year after painting the Picasso like Hour of Parting Dodge used another style to paint his Double Self Portrait. This portrait is a picture of him wearing sunglasses that depict another picture in each separate reflecting lens. The sunglasses on his face make up the focal point. All of the attention is drawn to the lenses because they look chrome, so much that you would think that it really was chrome with the sun shining directly on it instead of oil paint. Dodge is placed in front of a window with drapes hanging down from the wall that can't be seen. These drapes are yellow and white and while they are not bright in any way, their great chiaroscuro harmonizes well with the rest of the portrait and its otherwise dark palette.
After scouring the Cummer Art Gallery from stem to stern, I found the piece of art I wanted to write this paper on. ... After having a conversation with a guide at the museum, he told me the artist was a musician as well as a renowned visual artist. ...