Jim Dine is one of the most important artists of the American post-war avant-garde. Often referred to as a representative of American Pop Art, Jim Dine's work can hardly be fully grasped with this description. His iconic symbols and artistic techniques reach far beyond this classification, and his oeuvre is impressively interwoven with autobiographical references.
In his work, Jim Dine consistently deals in depth with such autobiographical themes, which he condenses in his typical symbols, such as the heart and the bathrobe. Thus, the theme of the self-portrait, one of the most important genres in art history, also plays a major role, as the hearts and bathrobes are nothing more than metaphors for the artist himself.
His monumental sculpture "Jim's Head with Branches" is likewise a direct self-portrait with a variety of allusions to autobiographical and art historical themes. Formally, it is a reminiscence of colossal ancient statues, in particular the metre-high ancient head of Emperor Constantine the Great in Rome. The classical references in Dine's work are also noticeable in this, as he repeatedly paraphrased other ancient sculptures, such as the Venus of Milo.
Scattered over the almost painterly, lively surface of the head are imprints of tools, a frequent motif in Jim Dine's work, whose grandfather owned a hardware store. The branches surrounding the head, in turn, refer to psychology and symbolise the artist's world of thought as he confronts his unconscious and his memories. The direct reference here is to a famous study by Freud, the so-called "Wolf Man", who, in his dreams, thought he saw wolves in the branches of the tree outside his bedroom. Jim Dine has illustrated this text by the father of psychoanalysis in an artist's book. The artist has moreover metaphorically processed the theme of the view from outside on one's own inner soul life in his sculpture "Jim's Head with Branches".