Week 9
Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada

Intellectual, Spiritual Seeker, Artist, Potter, Lover

Beatrice Wood was a performer, sketch artist, co-founder of Dada, student/friend of the spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti, world-famous potter, and lover of “chocolates & young men”.

In 1994, Governor Wilson of California named her “California Living Treasure” at age 101.

Dada Art and Culture, Romanticism, Indian Mystic and Philosopher Krishnamurti

Dada or Dadaism arose in the early 20th century, partly as a reaction to World War I, which was the first world war and caused many to lose faith intraditional institutions, religions, and cultural traditions, including art. Rejecting the dominant capitalist culture, the Dada movement which began in NewYork and moved its center to Paris espoused: nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois sentiments. Beatrice Wood infused it with a sense ofromanticism, playfulness, eroticism, and love. 

She formed a love triangle with two of its prominent exponents, Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché. It was an unusual triad: “I was having an affair with Roche while being in love with his best friend,Marcel Duchamp. I dreamed of Marcel while in Roche’s arms. I used to tell Roche that. He was delighted. ‘Oh, you’re in love with Marcel!’ he would say.” He was not upset because he loved Duchamp so much. “After I broke with Roche and he returned to Paris, then I had an affair with Duchamp.But the three of us were very much together. We were definitely a threesome.”

Beatrice Wood eventually moved to Ojai, California, where she fell in love with the magical desert landscape. She opened her famed pottery studio there and lived to be a 105 before passing. It was also in Ojai that she came under the influence of the Indian mystic andphilosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. His core philosophy is summarized later on in this PowerPoint presentation.

Beatrice Wood - Biographical Background and Stages of Life and Work

Although Beatrice Wood came from not insignificant wealth, she did not have much resources once she set out on herbohemian, artistic lifestyle. It was not so unusual in the early- to mid-twentieth century to be a bohemian artist intellectual and somehow find away to live in New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The structure of society was different – education, rent, healthcare, transportation, andother essentials were much less expensive or virtually free.

There are many stages to Beatrice Wood’s life and career but nothing definitive. 

• Debutante, performance and art student
• Co-founder of Dada with Marcel Duchamp, Henri Pierre Roché, the Arensbergs, and others.
• Potter and Sculpture in Ojai California, now the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
• Student and Friend of Indian mystic and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti
• World famous potter who exhibited from New York to New Delhi

Quotations

•Once, I invited Roché to call . . . , and when he left, my mother said, “You mustn’t see him again.” So, when he called, I said sweetly, “Oh, I’ll come see you.” 

•He didn’t know what to do. Finally, I opened the door [to a fling with him] by saying,  “Aren’t you going to show me your etchings?” I’ve looked at a lot of “etchings” since then. Some were heartbreaks, some werewonderful. But at least I lived the way I wanted – free.

•Once I was very jealous of another potter, and I mentioned it to [Krishnamurti]. He made me see that being jealous is part of being alive. He said, “Don’t try not to be jealous. . . . Drop it in go on in other directions.”

•What [Krishnamurti] was stressing was for the mind to be free of reaction, the quiet mind. My spiritual vision means everything to me. I amagainst all war. . . . But I’m full of violence myself, because we’re born that way.

•Three things have meaning for me: honesty; . . . freeing oneself from one’s own cunning; then a feeling for other people, compassion. 

•I have this great interest in the world, in people, and a longing to be President. And it annoys me so that I sit here, a little old lady, just chatting along. I who do not believe in violence would like to have a cannon shooting up all the people whom I don’t approve of.

U.S. News & World Report, Aug 28/Sep 4, 1995, 94-95.

•“I owe it all to art books, chocolates, and young men,” Beatrice Wood

would often tell those who made the cacti-stippled pilgrimage to her Ojai, California studio.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-the-forgotten-legacy-of-cult-artist-beatrice-wood