Beatrice Wood

Ceramist Beatrice Wood tells us the story of her unorthodox life and her influence on 20th-century art in this illustrated autobiography. Rebellious, radical, and romantic, ceramist Beatrice Wood (1893–1998) defied propriety to become a true national, and international, treasure. Here, in her own charming, spirited, and readable style, Beatrice Wood tells us the story of her unorthodox life and her influence on 20th-century art. This absorbing autobiography includes vintage documents and her own personal photos and sketches of her many famous friends and acquaintances in the art world. She became romantically involved with the Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, and offers rare glimpses into the lives of her circle, including key cultural figures like Constantin Brancusi, Isadora Duncan, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Anais Nin, and Krishnamurti. At age forty Wood studied ceramics and went on to become one of the major ceramists of the 20th century, working until her death at age 105. This captivating chance to enjoy Wood's rare charisma and spirit provides a better understanding of American art and the people who have shaped it.

Three New York Dadas and The Blind Man relates the story of the triangular relationship between Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roch and Beatrice Wood, told in the words of two of its protagonists; and also reprints in facsimile the Dadaist magazine they produced together in New York in 1917: The Blind Man. The principal text is the first English translation of Roch 's novel Victor, an account of his friendship with Duchamp (nicknamed Victor by his close friends in those days). Although unfinished, Roch 's text offers a unique account of New York Dada, all of whose principal characters and events make an appearance: Francis Picabia, Arthur Cravan, the Arensbergs and their soir es, the Blind Man's Ball and the scandal of Duchamp's "Fountain" at the Independents exhibition, a pivotal moment in modern art. The novel offers interesting insights into the sexual politics of the period, when a woman could be arrested or blackmailed for spending the night with a man to whom she was not married. Roch , a lifelong friend of Duchamp, appears to have been something of a devotee of triangular relationships, and went on to write a more famous novel on the topic (also autobiographical), Jules et Jim--later made into a film by Fran ois Truffaut. Beatrice Wood's account of these events is taken from her memoirs; she went on to become a celebrated ceramicist, dying in 1998 aged 105. The introduction and commentary is by Dawn Ades, the well-known scholar of Dada and Surrealism.