Beatrice Wood - "Luster Vessel" Earthenware with luster glaze bowl

Beatrice Wood • American (1893-1998)

Luster Vessel C: 1970 • Earthenware with Luster Glaze 6” x 6.5” x 6.5”

Beatrice Wood never set foot on the Titanic, but she painted with Monet in his garden at Giverny; tie-dyed costumes for Isadora Duncan; performed in plays by Sarah Bernhardt; fell in love many times, including famed author Henri-Pierre Roche, Dada artist Marcel Duchamp and India’s leading scientist. Her life with Duchamp and Roche served as the basis for the well-known novel and Francois Truffaut movie, Jules and Jim.

For 105 years, Beatrice Wood danced across Europe, America and India. In her 90’s she took up writing and soon published books ranging from cookbooks to her autobiography, “I Shock Myself.” When James Cameron was writing Titanic, he read that book, met Beatrice Wood and knew he’d found someone who made every day count. He’d found Rose.

Beatrice Wood crammed many lives into her 38,360 days on earth. She was a New York debutante who left her parents elegant home with $15 in her pocket hoping to become an avant-garde artist. She was an art and theatre student in Paris, then New York when the start of World War I forced her to leave the continent. She published two magazines of Dada art with two lovers, leading to her moniker “Mother of Dada.” It was complicated.

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In middle age, Wood became fascinated with folk art, leading to both a new career at the potters wheel, and a deep romance with India’s leading scientist who’d been invited to see her work. Her stunning vessels with lustrous metallic surfaces were so admired she was named one of “America’s Living Treasures.” But, of course she was.

Ever curious, she became fascinated with India, especially after meeting Annie Bresant, a leading light in the Theosophical Society who eventually became the first woman president of the Indian National Congress. Wood became the “world’s oldest Theosophian”* embracing the society’s belief in the existence of a deeper spiritual reality accessible through mental states transcending human consciousness. Very New Age-y for an aged woman.

After her Indian love affair necessarily ended, she never visited India again. “I never married the men I loved, I never loved the men I married,”1 she told a journalist. But she continued dressing in her beloved saris while making pottery and ceramic sculptures in Ojai, California, a hotbed of ceramic arts. She worked steadily at her wheel until a year before her death. When asked what she wanted to take with her to her next life, she responded in typical Beatrice Wood fashion, “A nice young violent man with black hair. And I would like to be in a beautiful sari.”*

As a century-old Rose Calvert says at the end of Titanic, “Only life is priceless so make every day count.” Beatrice Wood probably said it first.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased in memory of Scott L. Trenton 2022.2

*While researching this article I stumbled across a wonderful piece by Sandip Roy on the website, firstpost.com. These quotes were taken from that interview.

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“She was well known for the lustrous metallic vessels. The mentors who taught her to glaze hated her for her success. Glazer haters.”

2.
“Well into her 90’s she was named one of America’s Living Treasures. She probably hoped to meet some handsome young treasure hunters.”

3.
“As a young woman she painted with Monet in his garden. As an old woman she threw pots with famed potters Viveka and Otto Heino. Social climber.”

4.
“She claimed her longevity was due to “art books, chocolates and younger men. Works for me.”

Treaster Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1893

Born to wealthy socialite parents in San Francisco California.

1898

Family moved to New York and began preparing Beatrice for her role as a debutante. She spent a year in a convent in Paris and was enrolled in fashionable finishing schools.

1912

Beatrice announced she wanted to be an artist. Her mother enrolled her in the Academy Julian in Giverny, France. There she painted with Monet in his garden. She eventually ran away from her chaperone and ended up in an attic room surrounded by her painted canvasses.

1913

Decided she wanted to be an actress. Mother enrolled her in Comedie-Francaise for private dancing and acting lessons. She appeared on stage with Sarah Bernhardt, the leading star of the day.

1914

With World War I starting, she returned to New York where she joined the French National Repertory Theatre where she performed under the name Mademoiselle Patricia to spare her family embarrassment.

1914

Met famed Dada artist Marcel Duchamp while visiting the friend of a friend in the hospital. She and Duchamp had an instant bond.

1916

Duchamp introduced her to his friend, writer Henri-Pierre Roche who became her first lover. Duchamp, Roche and Wood formed a bohemian threesome whose relationship was the basis for Roche’s novel Jules and Jim which became a famous Truffaut film.

1916

She made an abstract painting to tease Duchamp who is so impressed with the work he had it published in a magazine and arranged for her to speak at his studio.

1915-1920

Wood, Duchamp and Roche published The Blind Man and Rongwrong, two magazines dedicated to the Dada Art Movement.

1915-1920

Wood was a regular participant in the avant-garde art gatherings at the home of well-known collectors Walter and Louise Arensberg, who were her friends.

1917

Created the poster for the Blindman’s Ball which became a modern art icon.

1918

Ran off to Montreal to appear in theatre and get away from her mother’s interference. Married the theatre manager, to get away from mother’s control. She ended up selling her art books and borrowing money to support his gambling habit.

1919

Unconsummated marriage was dissolved.

1920

Returned to New York and found all her friends in Dada movement had left. Fell in love with British actor Reginald Pole who introduced her to Dr. Annie Bresant of Theosophical Society and Indian sage Jiddu Krishnamurti.

1930s

Moved to Los Angeles after Pole fell in love with a younger woman, leaving her brokenhearted.

1930s

Wood purchased a set of Baroque dessert plates with stunning luster glaze. Couldn’t find a matching teapot so enrolled in ceramics course at Hollywood High School to learn to make her own.

Late 1930s

Studied ceramics with Glen Lukens. Rented a small artisan shop on Sunset Boulevard. “I never meant to become a potter. It happened very accidentally. When I ran away from home I was without any money. And so I became a potter.”*

* From Beatrice Wood Center For The Arts newsletter article, “About Beatrice Wood.” Entire article available at: www.beatricewood.com

Early 1940s

Studied with Otto and Gertrude Natzler who taught her their glazing secrets and then became furious when Wood’s ceramics career took off.

1945

Appeared on cover of Craft Horizons Magazine.

1947

Built a home in Ojai, California, a hotbed of ceramic arts. Her work appeared in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Began receiving pottery orders from major department stores.

1948

Began a lifelong friendship with legendary potters Viveka and Otto Heino.

1940s-1950s

Continued as a working potter in her Ojai studio until the age of 104.

1971

Invited by American State Department to visit India on a 14-city tour. Met and fell in love with India’s leading scientist. She returned often to visit him.

1974

Invited to build a new home on grounds of Happy Valley School in upper Ojai, where she had taught ceramics classes since 1947. Sold her old home to Viveka and Otto Heino.

1993

Inspired by her friend Anais Nin, Wood became a writer. Her best-known book was her autobiography, I Shock Myself.

1994

Named and “Esteemed American Artist” and “American Living Treasure” by the Smithsonian Foundation.

1997

Since she was unable to travel to the premier, Cameron came to her home to personally screen the movie with her.

1998

Died at her home in Happy Valley at the age of 105. Left her 450 acre home to Happy Valley Foundation along with her substantial collection of Folk Art, her own work and her library of art books.

2014

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art exhibited a series of her drawings from their Permanent Collection. All were signed with her nickname, Beato.