Considered a radical at the time, in the early 1900's she helped pave the way for future modernist painters. Although her early style was noticeably based on the Impressionistic values of a bright palette and deliberate brush strokes, her later work reflects a shift to Modernism.

Dunlap was a native Californian, born in Los Angeles in 1876. She attended both the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, studying under William Merritt Chase in New York and later with Andre L'hote in Paris. Dunlap exhibited some of her paintings when she returned to Los Angeles from Paris in 1911 and was immediately labeled a "Modernist". She shocked the local art scene with her controversial painting style, which her critics considered "unrealistic". She painted everyday objects that were composed of layers of color. Dunlap was criticized for painting a woman with hair that was blue because this was realistically how it appeared to her.

Sticking to a truly Modernist approach, Dunlap painted scenes, giving more attention to line, color and composition, not just subject. She was part of an elite corps of California Impressionists who had difficulty getting their works recognized by the California Arts Club of Los Angeles. As a contradiction, in 1915 she was awarded a gold medal for a painting she submitted in the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, California. Soon after, in 1919, Dunlap led what was labeled as the California Progressive Group, which acted as an alternative to the California Arts Club. She and her colleagues, Jack Stark, Detlef Sammann, Bruce Nelson and Karl Yens were gradually earning the recognition they deserved, much to the chagrin of the California Arts Club.

Dunlap was the co-founder of the Modern Art Society in Los Angeles and between 1915 and 1917 held solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Chicago Art Institute and the National Academy of Design, New York. Dunlap stayed in the Los Angeles area throughout the later part of her life, living in Whittier, California until her death in 1955.


Source:
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki Kovinick, "Women Artists of the American West"

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