Carved John Rood (1902-1974) Wood Sculpture Signed 1942

Name: Carved John Rood (1902-1974) Wood Sculpture Signed 1942
Brand: John Rood
Price: 3850 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

SIgned to the rear and dated 1942. In 1933 Rood started wood carving in Athens, Ohio and it wasn't long before he had his first one-person exhibit at Argent Galleries, in New York in 1937. His style began with a large bulky folk style and themes of everyday people and animals and he later moved to abstract and simplified forms.[8] According to one review, his early work seemed an "extension of whittling, have a provincial, 'local' flavor" and his abstract work was invocative of nature and man. Rood was creating shapes that resembled "human limbs and tree branches, seaweed and driftwood, wave and flame."[9] Some of the materials he worked with over the years included: marble, limestone, terra cotta, metal, glass, and wood carvings of ebony, walnut, oak, elm and myrtle.[10] He started working with wood and over time incorporated other materials. After 1950 he started working with metal and incorporated glass into his work after 1953.[11] He even worked with Styrofoam. His process was detailed in a New York Times article: "Styrofoam disappears under flame, and Mr. Rood not only carves it away with flame but modifies its texture with heated tools. The deteriorated plastic is then encased in a plaster mold except for orifices in which molten bronze is poured. The plastic vaporizes much as wax flows off in the old lost wax process. Mr. Rood may also introduce bits of rope or other material that does not leave too much ash; he has had to train his own technician for such casting. The resultant image is suggestive of the disruption and decay of matter and is often spectral in character."[12] Rood's second wife Dorothy Bridgman graduated from Wellesley college in 1910 and Rood created two sculptures for the campus in the 1950s, Persephone and Demeter which were some of the first sculptures added to the campus.[13][14] Rood completed a set of wood panel sculptures depicting American pioneer women for the headquarters of the American Association of University Women in Washington D.C.[15] For the Minneapolis Public Library building at 300 Nicollet Mall Rood created a 27 foot high, 13 ton art piece titled The Scroll. The building housed the library from 1961 to 2002[16] and this piece of art was for its opening and was commissioned in 1959. It is an S-shaped scroll consisting of 54 sheets of copper and bronze. At the time, Rood's wife Dorothy was the president of the library board and she donated the sculpture in dedication to William Henry Eustis. Eustis was a lawyer and political figure who financed Dorothy's college education and encouraged her to "love Minneapolis and do things for it."[17]

Creator:

John Rood (Artist)

Dimensions:

Height: 16.75 in (42.55 cm)Width: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Depth: 5.75 in (14.61 cm)

Style:

Organic Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Oak

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

1940-1949