Watercolorist, lithographer, teacher, and author, Adolf Dehn and his contemporaries believed that artists, writers, and political reformers could transform the world into a decent, modern, and liberated paradise.  His lithograph The Star (1945) exemplifies his interest in the cafe and burlesque as places where satire becomes social commentary.

In 1914 Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art and, in 1917, the Art Students League in New York City, where he met Joseph Pennell, George Luks, and John Sloan, who were also interested in depicting social conditions.  Dehn's work was influenced by George Grosz, Joseph Stella, Reginald Marsh, Stuart Davis, and Jules Pascin, as well as by his best friend, poet e. e. cummings.  In 1945 he published Water Color Painting, a text on his medium of choice.  Dehn's works are included in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Chicago's Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.