126

Beatrice Wood

(American, 1893-1998)

"Bowl"

lustre-glazed earthenware
signed at bottom.
h. 6", dia. 7-1/2"

  • Provenance: Notes: "I owe it all to art books, chocolates, and young men." – Beatrice Wood

    Most well-known for her richly luminous lustre-glazed ceramic vessels and admired for her flamboyant bohemian lifestyle, Beatrice Wood was a true artistic iconoclast. She was born into a socially prominent family in San Francisco; after the catastrophic 1906 earthquake, the family was forced to relocate to New York City. Her determination to pursue art dismayed her more conservative parents, though they allowed her to travel to Paris (with a chaperone) to attend the Comedie Francaise and the Academie Julien. Upon her return to New York, Wood was a modestly successful stage actor; it was at this time that the young woman broke financially from her family.

    As an active member of the New York artistic community, Wood, along with her close friends (and lovers) Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roche, was integral to the formation and proliferation of the Dada movement. In 1917, the three created and edited the journals The Blind Man and Rongwrong, the earliest works to detail and defend the tenets of Dadaism. Duchamp encouraged Wood to experiment with various artistic techniques and she was soon earning enough to support herself with her sketches and small figural sculptures.

    In the 1930s, a pottery class at a nearby school piqued her interest. She studied with acclaimed potters Glen Lukens and Gertrud and Otto Natzler, all of whom encouraged her exploration and experimentation with shape, form and glazing. Wood was to work on the potter's wheel daily until several years before her death at age 105.

    In 1991 she was named an Esteemed American Artist by the Smithsonian Institution.
  • Condition: **A few small areas of faint crazing. Old crack and repair to bowl at one side from rim to base. Please see additional images.

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