The essays on this site were written by me, Robert Kushner, over the summer and fall of 2014. Some of the information I remembered from my childhood and adulthood. However, much of the narrative had to be constructed from transcripts, two interviews that Dorothy gave, and materials in her photo albums and scrapbooks. Since almost none of her mature work was ever dated, this was often a difficult and sometimes conjectural task. Many of my conclusions came from conversations with Susan Teller and Liz Riviere about specific sequences in the work. This research and indeed the web site itself would not have been possible without the help and good cheer of Liz Riviere. She initiated and implemented diverse investigations, particularly about the Los Angeles art scene of the 1950s and 60s and about The Group. She encouraged me when it all seemed like a mess, worked and reworked the web design itself, and offered endless useful suggestions for improvements, for which I am immensely grateful.
Many thanks to Susan Teller for representing Dorothy’s paintings, prints and works on paper. Susan really dived into the early work and the prints, cataloging a disorganized print archive, and loyally exhibiting Dorothy’s work at her gallery as well as art fairs. She also got me thinking about different aspects of the work, particularly the paintings and objects from the 1930s-50s.
For much of the biographical material, I consulted interviews by Roberta Soll(1960) and myself (1991). Thank you Roberta. And thanks to Jane Freeman who transcribed my interview.
I am grateful to Ron Miller, archivist at the L.A. Art Association, Janet Blake, archivist at the Laguna Art Museum and Julia in the Reference and Research Services at the Pasadena Public Library for gathering a wealth of historical information on Dorothy and The Group.
LewAnne Collie worked with Dorothy in Santa Monica in the 1980s and early 1990s. She compiled the biography that we are using, took wonderful, sympathetic photos of Dorothy. Thank you LewAnne for your love of my mother and her work.
I want to thank Sam Franklin for permission to use his biographical essay. And I want to thank Peter Eleey for his considerations and additions.
Recent photography has been done by Adam Reich and Blanca Guerrero.