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Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts & Happy Valley Cultural Center
Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
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Photo: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
Legacy + Continuum
ABOUT US
HISTORY The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts & Happy Valley Cultural Center is located in Happy Valley - five miles from Ojai, atop a mountain. The land was purchased and the Happy Valley Foundation was created in 1927 due the vision of Annie Besant who believed “a model for the New Civilization” would be created there. The Center is a part of a continuum, realizing Besant’s vision for the land, which included a school and an art center.
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BEATRICE WOOD contemporary artist, craftsperson and writer Beatrice Wood was an important contemporary artist, craftsperson and writer. Her life ran the course of the 20th century and included many of the figures that shaped it. She created two-dimensional works in pencil, ink, watercolor, pastel, crayon and gouache throughout her life, but she is best known for her ceramics. An appreciation for ancient art, the impact of Modernism, the irreverence of Dadaism, an embrace of Eastern philosophy, the influence of folk art and even the ornament of ethnic jewelry were all combined in Beatrice Wood’s ceramics. Her work reveals a mastery of form, combined with a preference for the naïveté of folk art. Ultimately, it is impossible to separate her life experiences from the work she created, as she truly mastered the art of a life. It is also impossible to separate her spirit and ideals from Dr. Besant’s vision for Happy Valley. Beatrice Wood’s life was transformed by reading Annie Besant’s writing and attending her lectures. Besant authored or co-authored dozens of books and countless pamphlets. A famed orator, she gave sixty-six lectures in one year alone.
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Beatrice Wood, Rainbow Luster Chalice, 1965, ceramic, 6” h x 4 ½” dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/ Happy Valley Foundation
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ANNIE BESANT Today, Besant is remembered as a champion of freedom and an educator who fought for women’s rights, worker’s rights, and Indian self-rule. It was through her study of Besant’s work that Beatrice Wood became a follower of the Indian teacher J. Krishnamurti. Central to Besant’s original vision for Happy Valley was the creation of a “model for the New Civilization." The creation of a school and art center were aligned with preparing residents for this work. Since childhood, J. Krishnamurti had been expected to act as a great World Teacher – a manifestation of Maitreya, a bodhisattva of Buddhist tradition – with Happy Valley as the Center of an enlightenment which would spread across the world. In 1929 – just two years after being involved in the acquisition of Happy Valley land and the creation of the foundation – Krishnamurti announced that he was not the World Teacher. He continued to share his teachings internationally, but without the weight of being the hoped for Messianic figure. With Dr. Besant aging and never to return to Happy Valley, and Krishnamurti no longer part of the plan, it fell on the Happy Valley Foundation board to care for Annie Besant’s vision for Happy Valley. A group of loyal friends of Dr. Besant – including D. Rajagopal, Louis Zalk and Robert Logan – saw the foundation and land through the challenges of the World War I and the Great Depression. Trustees of the Happy Valley Foundation were a close-knit group of friends, devoted to Besant’s vision, and the foundation would remain familial for decades to come. Above: Annie Besant and J. Krishnamurti Below Center: 1955 Gathering at Beatrice Wood's home in Ojai. Seated left to right: Unknown, Robert Logan, Mabel Zimmers, D. Rajagopal, Beatrice Wood Below: Beatrice Wood, Happy Valley Foundation Cauldron, ceramic, 8” h x 15” w x 14” d, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
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Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
Photo: Rosalind Rajagopal
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Ultimately, it fell upon Rosalind Rajagopal, who had been one of the individuals who accompanied Annie Besant on her first trip to Happy Valley, to take the lead in pushing Besant’s vision forward.
volved in the activities of the foundation for decades. D. Rajagopal, who at the time acted as business manager for Krishnamurti, arranged for the school to hold its classes in the former Administration and Cafeteria buildings from KrishIn 1946, the Happy Val- namurti’s Star Camps. ley Foundation Board agreed with her plan Beatrice Wood moved for taking the first step to Ojai soon after the - opening the school in school was opened the Ojai Valley, with it and, although she enmoving to Happy Val- joyed the life of a solley when the time was itary studio artist, she right. J. Krishnamur- agreed to teach ceti, having chosen not ramics to the students. to act as The World Teacher, continued Rosalind had asked to be unofficially in- her to do so and, as
she often told friends, her love and respect for Rosalind was such that she would do anything her friend asked of her. The three decades that followed in Ojai were idyllic for those involved with the Happy Valley Foundation. Yet, as Annie Besant’s plans were coming to fruition, the generation of individuals who had cared for the foundation for decades were passing the torch to a new generation.
Photo: Beatrice Wood Teaching Happ
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py Valley Students
The three decades that followed in Ojai were idyllic for those involved with the Happy Valley Foundation. Yet, as Annie Besant’s plans were coming to fruition, the generation of individuals who had cared for the foundation for decades were passing the torch to a new generation.
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Photo: Beatrice Wood and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
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Photo: Beatrice Wood's Indian jewelry
Living across the road from Rosalind, D. Rajagopal, their daughter Radha, and Krishnamurti in Ojai, Beatrice Wood was part of a vibrant group of artists, writers and philosophers. In 1961, her life changed forever when she was invited by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay to travel to India. Like Besant, Kamaladevi was a social reformer and freedom activist, and was involved with the fight for Indian independence, the renaissance of Indian handicrafts, and uplifting socio-economic stan-
India was a transformative experience, leading Beatrice to collect art for the art center that Annie Besant had envisioned.
dards of Indian women. Kamaladevi arranged for a traveling exhibition and lecture tour throughout India for Wood. Previously aware of India through her philosophical and art studies, she was taken with the people and the folk art. Ultimately, it was a transformative experience, leading her to collect art for the art center that Annie Besant had envisioned. She also began dressing entirely in saris and wearing Indian jewelry, which continued for the rest of her life.
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Above: Beatrice Wood in her Ojai studio on McAndrew Road
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Above: New York Times 1945
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Above: Beatrice Wood with the studio sign for her Ojai studio and showroom on McAndrew Road, 1958
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Above: Beatrice Wood at her Ojai showroom on McAndrew Road, 1965 Right Above: Craft Horizons Cover with Beatrice Wood; Bullocks Wilshire Beatrice Wood Advertisement Right below: Beatrice Wood, Wallis Simpson and King Edward the VIII Plate, 1936, 13 ž� dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
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Photo: Beatrice Wood and Marcel Duchamp in Ojai. Right: Luncheon at Beatrice Wood's Ojai home in 1963, left to right: Walter Hopps, Richard Hamilton, Alexina "Teeny" Duchamp, Mrs. Walter Hopps, Marcel Duchamp, Yu Yoshioka, Harriet Von Breton, Mrs. Yoshioka, R.P Singh, Beatrice Wood
In 1963, the Pasadena Museum (today the Norton Simon Museum) presented a retrospective of the work of Marcel Duchamp. A new generation of artists, including Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, credited Duchamp with being a major influence on modern art. Historians and critics were also reconsidering the importance of the DADA Movement.
was increasingly presented in museum exhibitions, gallery exhibitions and international publications. She continued to struggle financially, but her independence was priceless to her, and she remained committed to her work.
asked Beatrice Wood to build a new home and studio alongside hers, and establish the beginnings of Dr. Besant’s vision for an art center. Beatrice happily agreed, selling her home to Vivika and Otto Heino, ceramists who were her contemporaries and teachers, as well as treasured In 1972, Rosalind Ra- works of art, including jagopal decided the a drawing by Marcel time had come to Duchamp. build a home in Happy Valley, designed for the foundation’s future Following her initial needs. It was funded success in selling work by the sale of Saro Vithrough leading de- hara, the former Ojai partment stores, Be- home of Sara and Robatrice Wood’s work ert Logan. Rosalind
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Photo: Liam O’Gallagher and Robert Rheem, Photograph by Beatrice Wood
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Photo: Liam O'Gallagher, Beatrice Wood and Robert Rheem
While waiting for her home to be completed, Beatrice Wood lived for a few months next door to Liam O’Gallagher and Robert Rheem at the original walnut farm housing on Happy Valley land. Rosalind had arranged for Liam and Bob to purchase a building across the street, a schoolhouse that had been transformed into a performance space for a Chekov group called the High Valley Theater. Rosalind and Beatrice moved into their new homes in 1974, the year construction began on the Happy Valley School’s new
home in Happy Valley, while their friends Liam and Bob settled in across the road from them.
Rosalind felt it was time for Happy Valley to blossom with more activities in accordance with Dr. Besant's original vision.
Beatrice Wood and Rosalind Rajagopal had been friends with Liam and Bob since the 1940s, and Liam became Chairman of the Planning Committee for the Happy Valley Foundation. Rosalind felt it was time for Happy Valley to blossom with more activities in accordance with Dr. Besant’s original vision, and a new, experimental activity was born on the land, which came to be known as the Ojai Foundation.
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Beatrice Wood was the happiest she had been in her entire life living in Happy Valley. It was unusual for a woman in her early eighties to build a new home, but she lived over two decades there. As is often the case with artists, there was renewed interest in her work and life as she came to be viewed as elderly. She was interviewed on
television programs and written about in glossy international magazines. “I had a very, very difficult, crazy upside-down life until I moved to Ojai,” she stated in a television interview at the time. “Then it changed and slowly began to open up and become very wonderful and fruitful.”
Above: Beatrice Wood, Conversation on a Sofa, colored pencil and watercolor on paper, 11” h x 15” w, Private Collection Right: Sculpture from India from Beatrice Wood’s Folk Art Collection and original sign for the Happy Valley Foundation and Beatrice Wood Studio Next Page: Beatrice Wood in Happy Valley 1971
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Photo: Garth Clark Exhibition Announcement of Beatrice Wood
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Photo: Beatrice Wood in Happy Valley in 1983
A historian who was working on a book on ceramics named Garth Clark came to visit her and ended up opening a gallery, which featured an exhibition of her work every year. Another historian named Francis Naumann, who was researching Marcel Duchamp and the DADA Movement, came to interview her and arranged for a touring museum exhibition of her work, as well as writing about her. They would both remain devoted and influential figures in her life.
Garth Clark and Francis Naumann would both remain devoted and influential figures in her life.
For decades, Robert Logan and Louis Zalk underwrote financial shortfalls of the Happy Valley School, and Rosalind had taken to doing the same thing. She reduced her living expenses to the bare minimum in order to use her inherited income to cover school deficits. In 1979, changes to the school’s financial structure allowed the school to become increasingly self-supporting, as the Happy Valley Foundation board agreed that Rosalind would not be able to financially support the school forever.
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Photo: Rosalind Rajagopal and Beatrice Wood
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In 1989, after devoting 50 years of her life to Happy Valley, Rosalind resigned from the Happy Valley Foundation board, with a letter that read in part:
become lifeless and dull. My own thinking is that so far we have tried, to the best of our ability, to follow these concepts and I think each one of you will carry on to the best of “I think it very import- your ability.” ant we never become rigid or dogmatic, so Being an indepenhard for well-meaning dent artist working people to escape. Dr. at over 100 years of Besant has even said age brought Beatrice that for some people Wood increased atit was important they tention, but in intermake mistakes as that views she pushed was the only way they back against the idea learn. She also said that she was elderly. it was good for people to pursue what at- “I’m only 32,” she tracts, otherwise, not would explain, as she using energy for ex- lived her life with the perimentation, they mindset that this was
indeed the case. When Rosalind Rajagopal died in 1996, it was a great loss for Beatrice, as Rosalind had been a guiding light for her. Two years later, soon after her 105th birthday, Beatrice Wood passed away as well.
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Photo: Rosalind Rajagopal
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LEGACY & CONTINUUM For the last twenty years of their lives, Rosalind Rajagopal and Beatrice Wood had planned together that their adjacent houses would implement the intentions of the founders – to further the pursuit of creative activities and continual learning in Happy Valley. In 2000, with financial support from Liam O’Gallagher and Robert Rheem, the Happy Valley Cultural Center was born, with a series of lectures and performances at the Zalk Theater, which had been completed thanks in part to funds from Beatrice Wood’s gift of all her worldly possessions – including her home, studio, library, artwork and folk art collection – as well as her intellectual property. In 2005, Kevin Wallace guest-curated an exhibition for the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, titled Beatrice Wood: The Art of a Life. He borrowed extensively from the Happy Valley Foundation in order to feature not only Beatrice Wood’s work, but also her folk art collection, photo albums and selections from the archives. After attending the exhibition, Radha Rajagopal Sloss and James Sloss invited Kevin to dinner, explaining that what he had accomplished with the exhibition was exactly what they hoped to create in Beatrice Wood’s home. As Chair of the Happy Valley Foundation, James asked Kevin if he would be interested in taking on the project on behalf of the foundation – and coming to live in Happy Valley. Kevin had proposed the exhibition to the mu-
seum as he and his wife Sheryl had visited Beatrice Wood on a few occasions and had been impressed not only with her work, but Wood herself. In preparation for the exhibition, Kevin had studied not only her history, but also the individuals in Beatrice Wood’s life, their philosophies and their work. He felt personally aligned with the mission of the Happy Valley Foundation and heartily agreed. 27
Left: Cover of the publication created in conjunction with the exhibition Beatrice Wood: The Art of a Life Above: Interior page from the publication
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For the past 15 years, the Center has shared Beatrice Wood’s life, work and studio with visitors, while presenting exhibitions of contemporary artists, workshops, lectures and performances. The Center also functions as Happy Valley’s historical museum, sharing photos and information about the fascinating individuals who shared Annie Be-
sant’s vision and the foundation’s rich history. As an activity of an educational non-profit foundation, all of these activities are viewed within the larger context of art, history and cultural studies. Above: Participants in a workshop presented by Julia Feld Right: Workshop with Beth Tate Next page: Photo of the Center’s Permanent Collection
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Photo: Young at Heart, a portrait of Beatrice Wood at 105 years-of-age by Jill Sattler
“Dr. Annie Besant said that life’s difficulties are knots by which one pulls oneself up. Since I was a child, I had an awareness that my life would be difficult. There are times, even now, when I cannot believe that I do not have to worry about being hungry. But I am glad I paid the price. I wanted to know what the world was like and, rather than remain wrapped in my mother’s cellophane protection, I had to go through terrible hardships. Because I was by nature hopelessly dreamy and romantic, I had to be shaken into reality. As a young girl I knew I would have to break the shell, but I had no idea how to make it happen.” - Excerpt from I Shock Myself, the Autobiography of Beatrice Wood
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BEATRICE WOOD'S JOURNEY TO HAPPY VALLEY
People are interested in Beatrice Wood for a number of reasons. She was an accomplished artist in the field of ceramics. She was a key member of New York DADA, alongside Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roche. She was an author, best known for her autobiography I Shock Myself. She was the inspiration for the character of Rose in James Cameron’s film Titanic. She remains an inspiring figure, as an uncompromising, selfmade woman who lived life on her own terms to the age of 105. No matter why you’re interested in Beatrice Wood, the most important aspects of her life are often missed in favor of her press friendly persona. The first thing anyone needs to understand about Beatrice Wood is that she was a romantic. From the time she was a young girl, being “raised on fairy tales” as she put it, until the day she died, she believed that love was the most important thing in the universe. She believed that men and women were very different - and viewed their relationships to be fraught with folly – alongside all that was wonderful and to be pursued.
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The second thing one needs to know is that, despite her love of being naughty, and shocking people by challenging society’s sexual views, Beatrice Wood was throughout her life driven by a sense of what was right. She often spoke of her relationship with her mother and their conflict, but her father was a tremendous influence upon her in regard to character. His beliefs were shared in two books, and he dedicated the second, Bugle Calls, to his daughter. The book put forth the idea that employers were responsible for caring for their employees, with support for unions – which was unusual – particularly for the time - coming from an employer. The beliefs that took root in Beatrice Wood, due to her father’s influence, set the stage for her embracing Annie Besant work for equality and her vision for Happy Valley.
for, which included finding inner peace and truth to self, which would lead to happiness. Beatrice Wood viewed the arts as her means of escape from her family’s world view and expectations, while spiritually and ethically she connected with the message of Annie Besant and J. Krishnamurti. She found in D. Rajagopal and his wife Rosalind an inspiring pragmatic approach to applying these ideals to everyday life. Becoming a Theosophist opened her up to a vast realm of spiritual thought, as well as finding purpose and happiness in the disciplined life of a studio artist.
Beatrice often shared the story of her life as a child and becoming a young woman and her autobiography, I Shock Myself, is highly recommended as it shares it all. While James Cameron loosely based the character of Rose in Titanic The third thing to know on Beatrice Wood, the dyabout Beatrice Wood is that, namic between the rebeldespite being born into a lious Rose and her mother family of means, she strug- in the film is an excellent gled to find happiness. She means of understanding was very much aware that these years. she was, in her heart, not what her family – particularly her mother - expected. Photo: Beatrice Wood 1922 by Jesse TarAs a romantic, there was an box Beals idealized love that repeatedly failed to materialize. She knew she had to find the life that she was meant
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Beatrice Wood was born in 1893 in San Francisco to wealthy, socially conscious parents. Five years later, the family moved to New York City, where her mother concerned herself with preparing her daughter for her eventual “coming out” into New York society. This included a year in a convent in Paris, enrollment in a fashionable finishing school
and summers spent that, if this were the in Europe, where she case, it would be acwas exposed to art complished properly. galleries, museums and the theatre. Ultimately, it was this ex- Above: Beatrice Wood and her posure to the arts that Mother, c. 1905, Photograph by H.S. ruined her mother’s Jӧvall, Paris Right: Beatrice Wood at 15 plans for her. In 1912, Beatrice rejected plans for a coming-out party and announced that she wanted to be a painter. Her mother decided
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Photo: Mother Climbing the Ladder by Beatrice Wood
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Photo: Academie Julian art students
Supervised by a chaperone, Beatrice studied painting at the Académie Julian in Giverny, where Monet was living. It had become a fashionable draw for aspiring artists, but the rebellious young Beatrice found it tediously academic. Following a fight with her chaperone, she moved into an attic room, which could only be accessed by a ladder, where she lined the walls with her painted canvases.
a black satin dress with real hand embroidery at her throat and a wonderful hat with feathers. And she said, ‘Look at the cobwebs.’ And I never said a word. And she took me back to Paris.”
Her hopes for life as an artist seemingly coming to an end, Beatrice turned her attention to the theatre. Once again, her mother decided that, if this were to be her direction, it would be done properly. Beatrice stud“My mother, of course, ied at the Comédieheard I'd run away Française, where she from this old lady of acted on the same thirty, and came down stage as Sarah Bernto find me,” she lat- hardt and danced beer recalled. “And I can fore Nijinsky. still see her climbing this ladder with her With political turmoil high-heel shoes. She in Europe and the onwas very elegant, with set of World War I, her
parents brought a reluctant Beatrice back to New York, where her mother did everything within her power to discourage her plans for a career on the New York stage. Despite this, Beatrice’s fluency in French led her to join the French National Repertory Theatre, where she played over sixty ingénue roles under the stage name “Mademoiselle Patricia” to save her family’s name and reputation. “I wanted to go on the stage,” Beatrice later recalled. “Not because I was stage-struck, but to earn money so that I could get away from home. Because I was a good little girl. Nothing is more revolting.”
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Photo: Portrait multiple d'Henri-Pierre Roché 1917 © Philippe Migeat - Centre Pompidou
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While working as an actress in New York City, a friend told Beatrice about a Frenchman who was in the hospital with a broken leg, who was lonely and had no one to talk to. Might Beatrice, being fluent in French, visit him? The Frenchman turned out to be the composer Edgard Varèse, who introduced her to Marcel Duchamp on her next visit. "We immediately fell for each other,” Beatrice recalled of her meeting with Duchamp.
“Which doesn't mean a thing because I think anybody who met Marcel fell for him. He was an enchanting person.”
ducing her to the vibrant world of modern art and encouraging her own creative pursuits. He was also the first man to break her heart, and their relaDuchamp had risen to tionship ended due to fame with his painting his infidelity. Nude Descending a Staircase, which com- Claiming to be a “mobined Cubism and Fu- nogamous woman in turism in a manner a polygamous world”, that baffled viewers. Beatrice had found For Beatrice, he was herself surrounded by simply the most hand- bohemian men who some, charming and thought little of bourintelligent man in the geois morality. world. She also met Henri-Pierre Roché, a “Marcel shocked me French diplomat, writ- because he said that er and art collector. sex and love are two Roché was to become different things,” Beher first lover, intro- atrice later recalled.
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Photo: Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Beatrice Wood, Coney Island 1917
"Marcel shocked me because he said that sex and love are two different things," Beatrice later recalled.
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Photo: Louise Arensberg in the Arensbergs Apartment, NYC, c. 1927, Photograph by Beatrice Wood
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Photo: Beatrice Wood at 22
Yet, she fell into a relationship with him because she felt they should become, “as close physically as they were emotionally” and they remained life-long friends. Duchamp and Roché brought Beatrice into the world of the New York Dada group, which existed by the patronage of art collectors Walter and Louise Arensberg. The Arensbergs’ home was the center of legendary soirees that included leading figures of the time including Francis Picabia, Mina Loy, Man Ray, Charles Demuth, Joseph Stella, Charles Sheeler and
many others.
"When I first saw their art collection, I thought it was an assembly of the most hideous things I'd ever seen," Wood later recalled. "But I decided that if these beloved people thought the paintings had merit...the least I could do was try to enter their world of understanding."
“When I first saw their art collection, I thought it was an assembly of the most hideous things I’d ever seen,” Beatrice Wood later recalled. “But I decided that if these beloved people thought the paintings had merit… the least I could do was try to enter their world of understanding.” Her eyes were opened to modern art while sitting before a Matisse painting that she had initially considered a horrific portrait: “Willing myself to be open minded, I almost went into a trance.
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Above: Beatrice Wood’s defense of Fountain, featured in the first issue of The Blind Man Below Top: Young Marcel Duchamp ; Below Bottom: Edgard Varese Next Page: Fountain, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz and featured in the first issue of The Blind Man
My eyes locked on its angular lines, until suddenly out of the canvas appeared a creature of wondrous beauty; Matisse had spoken, and at last, I listened.”
He also invited her to work in his studio, and it was there that she developed her style of spontaneous sketching and painting that continued throughout her life.
Duchamp had encouraged her to explore modern art and, when she created an abstraction to prove what folly it was, he arranged to have it published in a magazine.
Following the formation of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, Beatrice exhibited work in the First Exhibition of the Society of Independents. Although her work in
the exhibition caused some amount of scandal, nothing could compare with the impact of Duchamp’s work – a manufactured urinal exhibited under the pseudonym R. Mutt. This work, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz and defended in an essay by Beatrice in the avant-garde journal The Blind Man, went on to become an icon of modern art.
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Photo: Original Blindman’s Ball Poster
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, circa 1917
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Above: Self-Portrait with Reginald Pole, 1926, graphite and colored pencil on paper, 14" h x 11" w, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation, Gift of Francis Naumann & Marie T. Keller Right: Beatrice Wood and Reginald Pole, California, 1927
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In 1918, Beatrice Wood ran off to Montreal to appear in the theatre there.
habit. The marriage was legally dissolved years later by her parents, when evidence emerged that he al“Oh, I was terribly un- ready had a wife in Euhappy,” Beatrice later rope. Ultimately, Beoffered of her years in atrice lost interest in the theatre. “And my being an actress. mother had interfered with every role offered “I was interested in me. So I left.” the theatre as an art and, after a few years Her mother hired a in it, gave it up,” Beprivate detective who atrice later said of leavfound that she was ing the theatre. “You sharing an apartment know, acting is very in Montreal with Paul, fascinating. But being the theatre manag- an actress is not, beer, and was horrified. cause you become so Paul convinced Be- concentrated on youratrice that the only self. And your smile way to escape her and the way you move mother’s control was your head and the way to marry him and she you look. And really, it's did so. It was a mar- a pain in the ass.” riage that was without love or physi- Returning to New York cal intimacy, in which City from Canada, Behe sold her art books atrice found that the and borrowed mon- Dada movement had ey from her friends to dissipated. Roché and support his gambling Duchamp had gone
abroad and the Arensbergs had moved to Los Angeles. Beatrice fell in love with the British actor and director Reginald Pole, who introduced her to the Theosophical Society. “Four months of incredible happiness followed,” Beatrice recalled in I Shock Myself. "We met every day and went away on trips over the weekends. There was a continual flow of ideas between us; the surroundings fell away and laughter and conversations swept us through time and space to a land of communion. We were so much in tune that our communication was almost telepathic.”
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Beatrice Wood’s interest in Theosophy grew out of a longing for happiness and a search for truth. When she fell in love with Reginald Pole, she became familiar with the work of Madame Blavatsky, Annie Besant and J. Krishnamurti. The two visited a spiritualist bookstore and she purchased her first Theosophical books, including Thought Forms by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, which introduced ideas concerning color and form that would influence her work as an artist. The resulting study of philosophy and esoteric thought – during her time with Pole and for the rest of her life - was central to her finding happiness in her life’s work. Madame H. P. Blavatsky, was co-founder of The Theosophical Society and author
of numerous works including The Secret Doctrine, a work that featured an elaborate plan for human life in which masters and superhuman agents prepare a “world teacher” who ushers in a new age. One of her followers, C.W. Leadbeater discovered a boy named Jiddu Krishnamurti on a beach in India and convinced his fellow Theosophists that he was to be this world teacher. Annie Besant, a supporter of many movements, from female suffrage to Indian independence, became the leader of the Theosophical Society and oversaw Krishnamurti’s preparation as messiah. It was Besant who brought Krishnamurti to Ojai, California, where she arranged for the purchase of the grounds now known as Happy Valley. When
she first saw this place, Besant had a vision that the land would come to be a center for the new race of humans just beginning to emerge. Interestingly, despite being President of the Theosophical Society and devoted to Krotona, which relocated to Ojai from Hollywood around the same time, Besant chose to open the vision for the Happy Valley Foundation beyond Theosophists, as a separate activity. As Besant worked to realize this vision, Krishnamurti grew increasingly distant from the Theosophical view of the masters and began to explore a new focus and approach to teaching. Beatrice Wood’s first Ojai home was built across the street from where J. Krishnamurti lived, and they enjoyed mutual friends over the decades.
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Above: Key to the Meanings of Colors from the book Thought Forms, first published in 1905 Left: Shelf with folk art and books relating to Theosophy at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
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When Reginald Pole fell in love with a young girl and broke her heart, Beatrice moved to Los Angeles to be near the Arensbergs and Krishnamurti, who spoke regularly in nearby Ojai. Becoming close friends with Rosalind Rajagopal, the two decided to become clothing designers, but before they could start their business,
Rosalind found that she was pregnant.
Above: Beatrice Wood, At The Window, 1926, graphite, colored pencil and watercolor on paper, 13 1/2 x 9 1/2
She promised Beatrice that once she had the child, she’d have relatives help to raise it, but once she laid eyes on her daughter Radha, that idea vanished.
Right: Walter and Louise Arensberg at their Hollywood home with Marcel Duchamp, Photograph by Beatrice Wood
Beatrice Wood was to instead discover and devote herself to a new creative pursuit.
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Photo: The Angel Who Wore Black Tights
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Photo: Helen Freeman, Rukmini Devi Arundale, and Beatrice Wood, circa 1930
During a trip to hear Krishnamurti speak at a castle he’d been given in the Netherlands – a trip documented in her book The Angel Who Wore Black Tights – Beatrice purchased a set of luster-glazed plates that fascinated her. She decided that she wanted to make a matching teapot and in 1933 enrolled in adult education classes at Hollywood High School. She did not initially manage to create a teapot, let alone one with a luster glaze. In fact, she found that she was “not a born craftsman.” She was, however, determined and believed that ce-
"I never meant to become a potter," Beatrice later offered. "It happened very accidentally... I could sell pottery because when I ran away from home I was without any money. And so I became a potter."
ramics might prove the means of earning her way in the world. A few years later, she rented a small artisan shop at Crossroads of the World on Sunset Boulevard, where she demonstrated her craft and sold her work. “I never meant to become a potter,” Beatrice later offered. “It happened very accidentally… I could sell pottery because when I ran away from home I was without any money. And so, I became a potter.” Beatrice studied at the University of Southern California with Glen
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, Pitcher, circa 1950, ceramic, 4 ¼” h x 6” w x 4” d, Private Collection
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Lukens, who had recently founded the ceramics department. Learning about Gertrude and Otto Natzler, a couple who created beautiful ceramics that had recently relocated to Los Angeles from Vienna, Beatrice inquired if she might study with them. Gertrude threw their ceramic bowls and vessels and Otto glazed them and being allowed to study with them proved a life-changing experience.
came difficult when her career began to take off. Feeling that she was using their glazes and forms, they demanded that she leave, leading to a rift that was never mended and which Wood was saddened by for the rest of her life. Although she noted, “they were my teachers – of course my work is similar to theirs”, her work ultimately proved considerably different from that of the Natzlers.
nique, hers were loose and unconventional by comparison, freely exploring form, glaze combinations and happenstance - exhibiting an embrace of artistic naiveté and the unexpected results of the kiln. It was a lifestyle that was well-suited to her work ethic, philosophy and desire for self-expression.
While building a life as a ceramic artist, Beatrice Wood remained a devoted Theosophist and follower of J. While the Natzlers Krishnamurti. Although Wood trea- sought control over sured the experience, their works through the relationship be- mastery of tech-
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Photo: Otto Natzler
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Photo Above: Photo Above: Annie Besant, Hand-colored photograph, circa 1925 Below Right: Beatrice Wood, Vessel with Crystalline Glaze, ceramic, 7” h x 2 ¼” dia, Private Collection
Legacy + Continuum
Photo: Beatrice Wood, Joseph Sadony, Mrs. Sadony and Reginald Pole, 1927
One of the leading figures in the movement, C.W. Leadbeater, had discovered Krishnamurti on a beach in India and convinced his fellow Theosophists that he was the Theosophical Society’s much anticipated world teacher. Annie Besant oversaw Krishnamurti’s preparation to become a manifestation of the Lord Maitreya – who Theosophists believed had previously appeared in Atlantis, Egypt and as Jesus Christ. It was Besant who brought Krishnamurti to Ojai, California, where she arranged for him to spend time. In 1927, Besant, Krishnamurti, Rosalind Rajagopal and several others visited the property
now known as Happy Valley. When Besant first saw the place, she had a vision that the land would come to be a Center for the new race of enlightened humans just beginning to emerge, and she worked to raise funds for the purchase of the land, creating the Happy Valley Foundation. As work commenced on developing this vision, Krishnamurti grew increasingly distant from the Theosophical view of the masters and began to explore a new manner of teaching that ultimately separated him from the group. After renouncing the mantle of World Teacher, he continued to live in Ojai.
In 1947, Beatrice Wood felt that her career was established enough that she might build a home in Ojai. Her work had been included in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and she was receiving orders from major department stores including Neiman Marcus, Gumps and Marshall Fields.
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Beatrice Wood found a lot across the street from Krishnamurti, where she decided to build her home and studio. Her friend Lloyd Wright, architect son of Frank Lloyd Wright, created plans for her new home and studio, but she was unable to afford to build what he’d designed and had a local engineer redesign a smaller, more afford-
able home. Beatrice hung a sign outside her studio that read “Pottery - Reasonable and Unreasonable” and from early in her career priced certain works at a much higher price than others than seemed reasonable. This began when she had favorite pieces that she didn’t want to sell, so put ridiculously high prices
on them. She found that customers, realizing that it was a work that she considered so special, would quite often pay that amount. Above: Beatrice Wood at her Ojai showroom on McAndrew Road, circa 1960 Right: Beatrice Wood outside her Ojai showroom on McAndrew Road, circa 1960
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Photo: All India Catalog Cover
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Photo: Beatrice Wood in India
In 1961, Beatrice Wood traveled to India on a fourteen-city tour. In exposing the country to her work, she fell in love with India and its art, which further inspired her use of surfaces, texture, color, ornamentation and erotic imagery. The trip coincided with an invitation to exhibit her work in Japan. Her work drew from diverse traditions while maintaining creative freedom and stood in stark contrast to Japanese ceramics. She explained this balance of traditions in craft and artistic exploration in a lecture
she gave to ceramic students:
In exposing the country to her work, she fell in love with India and its art, which further inspired her use of surfaces, texture, color, ornamentation, and erotic imagery.
“Do be true to yourself, whether it's bad doesn't matter. The important thing - you have to copy while you're studying. And culture is - each of us - is like one pearl added to another to make a chain. We each contribute to the other. And that's all right. But once you're on your own, do that which comes from within. And I feel this very strongly.�
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Above: Shelf with folk art and documentation relating to Beatrice Wood’s relationship with India at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts Right: 33rd Wife of a Maharajah book cover
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In 1965 Beatrice Wood returned again to India, where she met a State Department employee named Ram Pravesh Singh, who later moved to Ojai to work as her manager for twenty-five years. She was invited to India a third time in 1972 to photographically document folk artists and their work. Turning eighty years of age, she went back to school to study photography and installed a dark room in her house. During these trips, she acquired a large collection of folk art, saris and jewelry.
Although she never again returned to the place she felt such an affinity for, India never left her. Beatrice Wood is perhaps best known for her work with luster glazes, represented by this detail of a small plate in the collection. The work in luster represents only one aspect of her work in ceramic, and she also created two dimensional works throughout her life, but the luster glazes were an area that she excelled in – the result of a great passion and lifelong pursuit.
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, Green Luster Plate, ceramic, 1� h x 6� dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
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Photo: Vintage alchemy text
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Photo: Vintage alchemy text
Exploration of luster glazes date back to Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt and they were of great interest to alchemists. Alchemy was the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir through what might be viewed as a magical process of transformation. Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials - for instance, to create gold through
processing materials.
Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materialsfor instance, to create gold through processing a combination of other materials.
of
other
Alchemy was also concerned with the perfection of the human body and soul – an alchemical magnum opus, or achievement of gnosis. In this way, Beatrice Wood’s pursuit of luster glazes, can be placed within the context of her study of Theosophy – particularly as it began with the purchase of a set of luster plates in Holland, while on a trip to spend time with J. Krishnamurti.
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This page: Beatrice Wood, Green Luster Plate and Cup, ceramic, 2 ½” h x 6” dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation Right: Beatrice Wood, Copper Red Lustre Cylinder Vase, 1990, ceramic, 8 ¼” h x 4” dia Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
As mentioned, this spectacular luster glaze is on a small plate in the Center’s permanent collection that has a matching tea cup. One of the pursuits of the Designer/ Craftsman Movement, and the American Craft Movement – with Beatrice Wood having been part of both – was creating functional items that artfully transcended their purpose, therefore elevating daily life.
indeed metal oxides are central to the process of creating luster glazes. The effect is achieved through the right combination of materials, and the process of reduction firing the works in the kiln.
This cylindrical vessel is an example of a copper luster glaze. In an oxidation firing, the work would have been green, rather than red, just as copper on buildings or in public sculptures turn green Alchemists exper- over time due to the imented with vari- exposure to oxygen. ous base metals and processes for turning With the reduction them into gold, and firing, certain materi-
als are added to the atmosphere of the kiln, with the oxygen cut off. Of course, the process is quite complicated, and even at over a hundred years of age, it remained a fascinating pursuit for Beatrice Wood.
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, Lustre Chalice with 10 Handles, 1982, ceramic, 13” h x 7 ½” dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
Legacy + Continuum
Above: Beatrice Wood, Turquoise & Copper Bowl, 1984, ceramic, 4 ¼” h x 8” dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation Below: Gold Rainbow Chalice, 1965, 6” h x 4 ½” dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
When the copper luster glaze did not completely mature, it would fire to a beautiful blue color. In the case of the Turquoise and Copper Bowl, the lustered areas have a copper sheen to them, while the areas that did not completely mature into a luster have a duller blue color. The result is stunningly beautiful. The work also makes clear how challenging lusters can be, as subtle differences existed to make some areas luster and others not. They could simply be a slight difference in the thickness of the glaze, or the
way the smoke that results from the process swirled around the work during the firing. Beatrice Wood explored certain forms more often than others, and the chalice was one of her favorites. Three of Beatrice Wood’s dealers – Garth Clark, Frank Lloyd and Francis Naumann were involved in selecting the works to be part of the Permanent Collection after her passing. It is obvious why these stunning goblets were selected because, indeed, for Beatrice Wood to create, or for a collector to find, such a work
would be very much like the search for the Holy Grail. While Beatrice Wood usually used a single luster glaze to cover a vessel, at times she created patterns and designs using different luster glazes.
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, Pink Horse with Blue Rider on Rock (1940's), 10” h x 7” w, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
From the beginning of her exploration of ceramics, Beatrice Wood created sculpture and Pink Horse with Blue Rider on Rock was created in the 1940s. Though her study of pottery with Glen Lukens, and Otto and Gertrude Natzler, made working on the potter’s wheel and experimenting with glazes central to her ceramic practice, throughout her career, she often mounted smaller sculptural works on rocks, crystals, or other natural materials. While she is often referred to as a potter, it would be
Throughout her career, she often mounted smaller sculptural works on rocks, crystals and other natural materials.
more fitting to describe Beatrice Wood as an artist who explored pottery and ceramic as a sculptural and pictorial medium. The Wedding Couple, from 1970, reminiscent of the work of Marc Chagall features two figures attached to a crystal. Beatrice Wood mentions attending exhibitions of Chagall’s work in 1931 and 1941, though it’s not clear if they ever crossed paths. Certainly the romanticism and spirituality of Chagall’s work would have appealed to her.
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, The Wedding Couple, 1970, ceramic, 9 ½” h x 8” w x 6” d, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/ Happy Valley Foundation
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, Is My Hat on Straight?, 1971, ceramic, 18” h x 17” w x 10 ½” w, Private Collection
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Photo: Beatrice Wood, Mr. & Mrs. Teapot, ceramic, 15” h x 18” w x 6” d, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
Beatrice Wood's "sophisticated primitives” distanced her from the craft and art fields as much as won them over. While the vessels moved along the accepted language of craft, design and the decorative arts, her figurative work embraced an intentionally naïve sensibility. In retrospect, these works round out her oeuvre and connect with her expansive embrace of modes of self-expression, from folk art to Dadaism, yet they prefigured the larger acceptance of the figurative and narrative by
"Now, I've been told that my pottery is elegant... tradition and all that. But these figures are something entirely different. And I think that's the impact of Marcel in a certain direction that I don't want to keep them schooled.”
artists working in ceramics by decades. “Now, in pottery I make figures,” Beatrice once said of the work. “And a lot of people think they're perfectly horrible. Maybe they are. I've no idea. ...But I purposely keep these figures unschooled. Now, I've been told that my pottery is elegant... tradition and all that. But these figures are something entirely different. And I think that's the impact of Marcel in a certain direction that I don't want to keep them schooled.”
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The fact is, the impact of learning from Otto and Gertrude Natzler, as well as her friends Otto and Vivika Natzler led to Wood becoming quite astute in both working on the wheel and glaze formulation. However, in both of these pursuits, she became increasingly loose in her work, as she breathed humanity and character into works through favoring evidence of the hand and heart of the maker over perfection.
in 1948, is an excellent example of Beatrice Wood’s embrace of naughtiness in sharing the complex relationship between men and women. This was the subject of countless works.
Created in 1968, Cat Platter with Leaves is an excellent example of how Beatrice Wood often combined her two-dimensional work and exploration of ceramics. It features luster glazes, along with Mason stains, which Another example of allowed her to use line this sculptural ap- and brush strokes in a proach by Beatrice manner similar to waWood, Decoy, created tercolor or gouache.
The twenty-five years Beatrice Wood spent living alongside Rosalind Rajagopal in Happy Valley were the happiest and most successful years of her life. Her fame as an artist increased, with museum exhibitions and television crews coming to interview her. She greeted countless visitors, but was happiest creating work alone in her studio. Above: Beatrice Wood, Turquoise White Cat Plate with Leaves, 1968, ceramic, 14” dia x 2” d, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation Right: Beatrice Wood, Decoy, 1948, ceramic, 7” h x 16” w x 5" d, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/ Happy Valley Foundation
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Photo: Beatrice Wood at the Phoenix Art Museum
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Photo: Beatrice Wood with Anais Nin
Beatrice Wood was in her late eighties when her first book, The Angel Who Wore Black Tights, was published. A few years later, her autobiography, I Shock Myself, was published, followed by Pinching Spaniards and 33rd Wife of a Maharajah: A Love Affair in India. There were also books written under the pseudonym of Countess Lola Screwvinsky. Despite an increasingly busy schedule and demand for her ceramics, she had become a writer. Beatrice Wood’s friend Anais Nin provided the model and encouragement for writing
"Beatrice Wood combines her colors like a painter, makes them vibrate like a musician. They have strength even while iridescent and transparent. They have the rhythm and luster both of jewels and human eyes. Water poured from one of her jars will taste like wine." - Anais Nin
her autobiography, going as far as recommending that her agent publish it. As the daughter-in-law of Reginald Pole, one of Beatrice’s great loves, the two had kept in touch over the years. Anais Nin wrote of her friend’s pottery, “Beatrice Wood combines her colors like a painter, makes them vibrate like a musician. They have strength even while iridescent and transparent. They have the rhythm and luster both of jewels and human eyes. Water poured from one of her jars will taste like wine.”
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Photo: Shelf with examples of Beatrice Wood’s jewelry at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
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At over 100 years of age, she was offered assistance with her jewelry from an assistant and refused it, saying, “Hell no, that’s Beatrice claimed the best part of my that Topa Topa, day - is picking out the the mountain hardware.” She explained: “Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved jewelry, and have never gone out without a necklace and a bracelet,” Beatrice explained. “I have never paid attention to fashion.” Beatrice Wood said that Topa Topa, the mountain that she lived alongside after her move to Happy
that she lived alongside after her move to Happy Valley, was the only partner she could count on.
Valley, was the only partner she could count on “to be there when I go to bed at night and still be there when I wake up the next morning.” Beatrice Wood was an inspiration to countless artists and writers with her work, even those in fields she did not work in, such as the cinema. Her relationship with friends Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché was said to have inspired the latter’s book Jules and Jim, which was made into a celebrated French film by director François Truffaut.
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Photo: Topa Topa Winter
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Photo: Jules and Jim, by Henri-Pierre RochĂŠ
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Photo: James Cameron presenting Beatrice Wood with Titanic videos
She was also the subject of films herself, most notably Beatrice Wood: The Mama of Dada, created on the occasion of her 100th birthday. Toward the end of her life, Beatrice provided inspiration for the character of “Rose” in James Cameron’s film Titanic. She was invited to attend the premiere but was too ill to do so. Instead, James Cameron and Gloria Stewart, who played the Beatrice-like character in the film, dined with Beatrice and presented her with two video tapes, containing the full movie. Having lived during
Toward the end of her life, Beatrice provided inspiration for the character of "Rose" in James Cameron's film Titanic.
the time of the great loss of life due to the Titanic sinking, Beatrice declined to watch the second half, because she believed that it would be sad and that it was too late in life to be sad. Beatrice Wood wrote thank you notes to everyone who attended her 105th birthday party, many of them arriving after the recipients received news that she had passed away. It was bittersweet experience for them – a testament to her character, her devotion to her friends, and a final act of love and gratitude.
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Photo: Beatrice Wood in Happy Valley
“There are three things important in life: Honesty, which means living free of the cunning of the mind. Compassion, because if we have no concern for others, we are monsters. Curiosity, for if the mind is not searching it is dull and unresponsive.� - Beatrice Wood
Legacy + Continuum
LOOKING FORWARD Today, the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts & Happy Valley Cultural Center continues as a self-supporting activity of the Happy Valley Foundation, functioning without an endowment. Our exhibitions, workshops and performances provide some income, yet like most arts organizations, we are dependent upon memberships, donations and grants to survive from year to year. We hope that you will support our work in caring for Beatrice Wood’s legacy, Annie Besant’s vision, and our educational programming, whether you live in the area and are able to visit and participate in our activities, or if you live anywhere on the planet and share our belief in the importance of the arts. We need for you to be part of our community! To learn more, visit www.beatricewood.com Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date on our programming and for vintage images of Beatrice Wood!
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Beatrice Wood, Rainbow Luster Chalice, 1965, ceramic, 6” h x 4 ½” dia, Permanent Collection: Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts/Happy Valley Foundation
Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts & Happy Valley Cultural Center Mailing address: BWCA PO Box 608 Ojai, California 93024 Physical address: 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Road Ojai, California 93023 Telephone: 805-646-3381 E-mail address: beatricewoodcenter@gmail.com Website: www.beatricewood.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Art-Gallery/BeatriceWood-Center-for-the-Arts-50676353049/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beatricewoodcenter/