1. Xerox Colorist
"find it necessary to take a stand that will permit nature to be revealed, that will accept what is real. If it is a mystery, then a mystery not to be judged as beautiful or not beautiful, nor to be liked or not liked."
-As quoted in COPY ART, 1978
2. Assembler of Found Objects
"They have color, texture, and pattern as well as mystery and magic. They connote feelings of times passed and places seen and experiences had. They sharpen the awareness of beauty and rhythm in the world around us. "
-Mills Gallery. 1955
"Collected over a period of 25 years, the bones of pigs, deer, chicken and humans, rearranged as sculpture . . . To use the discarded pieces of once living animals and reassemble them into a new object verges on a spiritual or magical activity."
-Judith Von Baron. ARTS MAGAZINE, Jan.. 1974
3. Sound and Light Artist
"A few of the uses of light in paintings are very recent discovhies and bridge the gap between painting and sculpture. The works of Dienes transmit light through transparent materials. rejTect light from shiny suifaces. and contain electric bulbs. " -Roy Mover. Director of the American Federation of Arts. 1959 Yn 1962, Ms. Dienes was already "inventing" kinetically- produced sound sculpture. "
-Michael Hitzig, JO URNAL-NE WS, Jan. 16. 1977
"Given the variety of materials Dienes has employed over the years, the bouquet of sound was rich, indeed-as rich as the variety of textures, forms, colors and poetic suggestion in the objects themselves." -Peter Frank, ART NEWS. Jan. 1976
4. Preserver of Petroglyphs
"Apart from the historical and archaeological value of the rubbings, the finished print is, in itself a thing of art. and sometimes more interesting than the original design. "
— Mark Hedden, AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, 1958
5. Experimental Prinmaker
“In Sari Dienes' 'Sidewalk Rubbings' at the Contemporaries, the muse of printmaking has literally taken to the streets."
—Rose Slivka, CRAFT HORIZONS, Sept., 11162
"'A circular saw and various spiky forms lead to a sunflower as eloquent as any of Van Gogh's, but most of the pictures are not as specifically representational as that. Manhole covers, perforated steel plates, boards, sidewalk grilles ad other surfaces have been drawn upon for a series of designs laying stress on the movement of rectilinear and circular forms and on exquisitely sensitive resonances of color and tone."
—Alfred Frankenstein.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 1957
6. Snowpainter and Earthworker
"The best of Soho so far seems to be organic, totemic and sculptural. . . Long interested in the energies and totemic forms of nature, Dienes was perhaps one of the first to do 'earthworks’. Her painted snowpieces slowly melt and stain the earth with colored presence. "
—Carol Zeniel, ARTS CANADA. Jan. 1974
7. Conjurer of Apparitions
"Recently. Sari Dienes was part of the "Women are Happening" workshop at the Women's Interest Center in NYC. Her contribution was a consciousness-raising environment of foil forms illuminated by color-slide projections."
—Adele Myers, JOURNAL-NEWS. May 14. 1973
8. Sculptor in Glass, Mirrors, Wood, Mylar, Etc.
"Her bottle sculptures rehearse for us that radiant void of which the sages speak. Forms press forth invisibly ... New light through old bottles, in and out of jars, vials, jugs, cannisters, flacons, cruets, crocks, stoppers, flash bulbs . . . Acrobatic pyramids, a total bloom."
—M.C. Richards. CRAFT HORIZONS, 1962
“Paint, ink, wood. clay, concrete, metal, glass, mylar, fiber, fabric and grass have all been transformed under her skilled fingers."
—Leslie Flanders. BROOME STREET MUSE, 1978
"Dienes is a more thoroughly Surrealist than Nevelson however, and Threesome was made up, with wry gruesomeness, out of two burnt wooden mallets that had once been used to open lhe bodies of fish and a horse's hoof."
—Sanford Schwartz, ART INTERNATIONAL, Feb., 1973
9. Clay Collagist
"While in Japan, she began working with ceramics in a town entirely devoted to commercial pottery. She exhibits these marvelously irrational objects in boxes with cotton wool. Others are mounted on boards—as concrete objects, they are fascinating. "
—Lawrence Campbell, ART NEWS. 1959
10. Culinary Artist
"And now, onto the rear gallery lawn where a beautiful 80-year old artist is adding a shot of rum to the whipped bananas and safflower oil. Then come the cranberries and lemon peel. . . Director Kotik 0JS.E.M. at the Albright- Knox Galley had a national treasure on his hands with the presence of Sari Dienes. . . "
—John Dwyer. THE BUFFALO NEWS. June 4, 1978
11. Unconventional Portraitist
". . . silhouettes of heads, adorned with neckware to delight the most ardent garbage picker. or archaeologist. . . . With etruscan-like interest, Dienes made the jewelry from an egalitarian inventory: foam rubber scraps, glazed earthenware coils, mirrors, particles of jewelry, a tiny motorized speaker, hawks' wings."
—Carla Sanders. WOMANART, Winter. 1977- 78
12. Dancer and Poet
"Even in poetry, she invites experiment, a connection to the spirit of material life."
—Judith Garetn. W.I.A. NEWSLETTER, Feb. 1976