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Wood, Beatrice

 Person

Biography

Beatrice Wood (1893-1998) was born on March 3, 1893 in San Francisco and raised in New York City. The daughter of affluent socialites, Wood studied painting at the Julian Academy and acting at the Comédie Francaise in Paris at the age of 18. Upon her return to New York, she joined the French Repertory Company and in 1916, befriended the artist Marcel Duchamp and the writer and diplomat Henri Pierre Roché. The three founded and published the short-lived little magazine The Blind Man, one of the earliest manifestations of Dada in Americirca Through Duchamp, Wood met the art collectors Walter and Louise Arensberg, artists Man Ray, Francis Picabia, and Charles Sheeler, and the poet Mina Loy. Wood became a regular participant in the frequent gatherings of intellectuals, artists, and writers at the Arensbergs' West 67th Street apartment. With Duchamp's encouragement, Wood returned to drawing and painting, submitting a work to the 1917 exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists.

Wood relocated to Montreal in 1919 to continue her acting career and there she married Paul Renson, a theater manager. She soon annulled the marriage and returned to New York City. Around 1926, Wood moved to Los Angeles and then to Hollywood, California, where she renewed her friendship with the Arensbergs. In 1938, she married Steve Hoag, an engineer. By all accounts the marriage was not a happy one, yet the couple lived together until his death in 1960. In 1948, they relocated to Ojai, California to be near the Indian sage Krishnamurti, the leader of the Theosophical Society, to which Wood had belonged since 1923.

Wood first became interested in ceramics in 1933 after purchasing a set of luster-glaze plates at an antique store. She soon enrolled in a pottery course in the Adult Education Department of Hollywood High School. She later studied briefly with the Austrian ceramists Gertrud and Otto Natzler. For the next sixty years, Wood supported herself creating and selling pottery and in 1956 she opened her own studio. At first, she concentrated on dinner sets, but by the mid-1970s she began to specialize in more elaborate, decorative bowls, vases and chalices with complex luster glazes. Wood continued to work at her potter's wheel until two years before her death in 1998 at the age of 105.

Found in 32 Collections and/or Records:

Beatrice Wood and Henri Pierre Roche, circa 1917

 Object — Box: 50, Folder: 22
Identifier: WLA_B050_F022_001
Scope and Contents

Beatrice Wood and Henri Pierre Roche. Copy prints from photo album vol. 2, p. 3.

Dates: circa 1917

Beatrice Wood and Henri Pierre Roche, circa 1917

 Object — Box: 50, Folder: 22
Identifier: WLA_B050_F022_002
Scope and Contents

Beatrice Wood and Henri Pierre Roche. Copy prints from photo album vol. 2, p. 3.

Dates: circa 1917

Beatrice Wood and Henri Pierre Roche, circa 1917

 Object — Box: 50, Folder: 22
Identifier: WLA_B050_F022_003
Scope and Contents

Beatrice Wood and Henri Pierre Roche. Copy prints from photo album vol. 2, p. 3.

Dates: circa 1917

Beatrice Wood and unidentified "Sheriff", undated

 Object — Box: 53, Folder: 47
Identifier: WLA_B053_F047_001
Scope and Contents

Photograph of Beatrice Wood and unidentified "Sheriff."

Dates: undated

Beatrice Wood at a table, undated

 Object — Box: 53, Folder: 46
Identifier: WLA_B053_F046_001
Scope and Contents

Photograph of Beatrice Wood at a table.

Dates: undated

Beatrice Wood in a bathing suit, 1925

 Object — Box: 53, Folder: 45
Identifier: WLA_B053_F045_001
Scope and Contents

Photograph of Beatrice Wood in a bathing suit.

Dates: 1925

Beatrice Wood in New York City[?] park, circa 1917

 Object — Box: 50, Folder: 21
Identifier: WLA_B050_F021_001
Scope and Contents

Beatrice Wood in New York City[?] park. Copy print from photo album vol. 2, p. 12.

Dates: circa 1917

Beatrice Wood (nude), undated

 Object — Box: 53, Folder: 44
Identifier: WLA_B053_F044_001
Scope and Contents

Photograph of Beatrice Wood (nude).

Dates: undated

Beatrice Wood wrapped in a Native American blanket, undated

 Object — Box: 53, Folder: 43
Identifier: WLA_B053_F043_001
Scope and Contents

Photograph of Beatrice Wood wrapped in a Native American blanket.

Dates: undated

Joseph Sadony, undated

 Object — Box: 53, Folder: 37
Identifier: WLA_B053_F037_001
Scope and Contents

Photograph of Joseph Sadony by Beatrice Wood.

Dates: undated

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Hollywood, United States 12
New York City, United States 10
Coney Island, United States 3
Cambridge, United States 2
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