i shock myself beatrice wood career woman of art

She went on to study with Viennese master ceramists Otto and Gertrude Natzler, wartime expatriates who settled in Los Angeles.Īs a young woman, she had two unconsummated marriages. Unable to find a teapot to match six antique luster plates she had bought in Holland, she enrolled in a ceramics class at Hollywood High School, planning to make herself a teapot and be done with it. Her first experience with ceramics was a modest one. In 1928, she moved from New York to Los Angeles. She also began to attend the salon evenings of modern art patrons Louise and Walter Arensberg.

In New York, she worked as an actress and formed friendships with writers and avant-garde artists - most notably Duchamp, her most celebrated lover. Wood returned to the United States and landed in the middle of the New York Dada movement. While there, she peered through a hedge to catch sight of Monet painting in the garden at Giverny and attended the scandalous premiere of Stravinsky's 'La Sacre du Printemps.' When World War I began, Ms. She studied acting in Paris in her teens and drawing at the Academie Julien. Wood, who was born in San Francisco, was brought up in blue-blood New York society. Wood also created miniature bordellos out of clay. A piece called 'Modern Woman,' created in 1991, depicts a female hoisting a male over her head. They often poked fun at social artifice, political hypocrisy and the battle of the sexes. Critics have described her clay figures as brimming with whimsy and sensuality. Wood was noted for pioneering exquisite 'luster' glazes in luminous colors including dark green, gold, pink and blue. museums, including Washington's Smithsonian Institution and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.Īt age 100, she became the subject of the documentary 'Beatrice Wood: The Mama of Dada.' Her ceramics are displayed in the permanent collections of 12 major U.S. She often cited 'chocolate and young men' as the key to her longevity. Wood, the author of several books, became as celebrated for her rebelliousness and insolent wit as her ceramics. Always clad in a trademark sari and dripping a challenging amount of silver jewelry, she never allowed her failing hearing to hinder her in welcoming her guests. Wood was a community fixture who graciously held court for drop-ins in that ranch home, which doubled as a public gallery and drew hundreds of visitors each month. Wood, who died in her Topa Topa Mountain studio and home near Ojai, Calif., had recently undergone surgery for an intestinal ailment.Ī resident of Ojai's verdant Happy Valley since 1948, Ms. Beatrice Wood, 105, famed ceramist whose liaisons with artist Marcel Duchamp, writer Henri-Pierre Roche and others associated with the avant-garde Dada movement of the early 20th century earned her the appellation 'Mama of Dada,' died March 12.

I shock myself beatrice wood career woman of art