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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 191 Collections and/or Records:

Correspondence from Walter Arensberg to Norman Fenton, 1948 January 3

 Object — Box: 7, Folder: 29
Identifier: WLA_B007_F029_030
Scope and Contents

Correspondence from Walter Arensberg to Norman Fenton, Chief of the Classification Bureau for the State of California Department of Corrections.

Dates: 1948 January 3

Correspondence from William A. Camfield to Anne d'Harnoncourt, 1987 October 30

 Object — Box: 25, Folder: 9
Identifier: MDE_B025_F009_001
Scope and Contents

Correspondence from William A. Camfield, Professor of Art History at Rice University, to Anne d'Harnoncourt, George D. Widener Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Dates: 1987 October 30

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball to Beatrice Wood, 1954 May 21

 Object — Box: 181, Folder: 1
Identifier: FKR_B181_F001_026
Scope and Contents

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to Beatrice Wood.

Dates: 1954 May 21

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball to Elizabeth S. Wrigley, 1954 February 14

 Object — Box: 181, Folder: 1
Identifier: FKR_B181_F001_064
Scope and Contents

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to Elizabeth S. Wrigley.

Dates: 1954 February 14

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball to Walter Arensberg, 1952 October 14

 Object — Box: 180, Folder: 9
Identifier: FKR_B180_F009_019
Scope and Contents

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to Walter Arensberg.

Dates: 1952 October 14

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball to Walter Arensberg, 1952 October 14

 Object — Box: 180, Folder: 9
Identifier: FKR_B180_F009_021
Scope and Contents

Draft correspondence from Fiske Kimball, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to Walter Arensberg.

Dates: 1952 October 14

"Drawing for Life" exhibition announcement, 1999

 Object — Box: 7, Folder: 2
Identifier: MDR_B007_F002_001
Scope and Contents

Achim Moeller Fine Art Limited. "Drawing for Life: Eighty-Six years of Watercolors, Drawings, and Lithographs by Beatrice Wood: 1910-1996." Exhibition announcement.

Dates: 1999

"Duchamp du Trait" exhibition checklist, 1977

 Object — Box: 7, Folder: 26
Identifier: MDR_B007_F026_001
Scope and Contents

Galerie La Hune. "Duchamp du Trait." Exhibition checklist.

Dates: 1977

Duchamp Photograph List, circa 1976-1977

 Object — Box: 22, Folder: 12
Identifier: MDE_B022_F013_010

Envelope addressed from Beatrice Wood to Walter Arensberg, undated

 Object — Box: 20, Folder: 45
Identifier: WLA_B020_F045_002
Scope and Contents

Envelope addressed from Beatrice Wood to Walter Arensberg.

Dates: undated

Additional filters:

Type
Archival Object 189
Collection 2
 
Subject
correspondence 76
Philadelphia, United States 35
photographic prints 32
New York City, United States 31
Hollywood, United States 30