BEATRICE WOOD (1893-1998)
Mama’s Boy

"Beatrice Wood studied in private schools in Pennsylvania and, after rebelling against her socialite parents, at the Academie Julian in Paris. World War I forced her to leave Europe; she joined the French Repertory Company in New York and, in 1916 she befriended the Dadists Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roche, who introduced her to avant-garde circles. Those circles included the Walter Arensbergs, Picabia, Man Ray and others. During the '20s, as a 'fringe' member of the Dada movement, she exhibited her witty line drawings and watercolor paintings. This early identification with one of Twentieth Century's most influential movements earned her the title of ""Mama of Dada"".

She had many ways in which she expressed herself - and earned a living: writing, pottery (developing her own version of a very popular luster-glaze technique) and printmaking. Her printmaking was guided by her relationship with two master lithographers: Lynton R. Kistler in the 1930s and Edward Hamilton in the 1980s, both of Los Angeles.

Throughout her years she kept a regular journal, authoring several books, including her 1985 autobiography, 'I Shock Myself'. Amusing and erotic drawings often illustrated these writings. Since the late 1920s, she lived in Los Angeles but, in the late 1940s, moved to Ojai, California. Eventually she established a studio, gallery and art school within her home. Her artwork and her memoirs of her life experiences kept her creative, eternally young and buoyant into her 105th birthday."