GPritch101 on sun 15 mar 98
Beatrice Wood Obituary from Associated Press:
Beatrice Wood
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Beatrice Wood, a freethinking potter and artist known as
the ``Mama of Dada'' whose spunky character became the prototype for the aging
Rose in the movie ``Titanic,'' died Thursday at age 105.
At 18, Ms. Wood moved from New York to Europe to study drama. She returned at
the time of World War I where her first love was with Henri-Pierre Roche,
author and diplomat. She soon became involved with Marcel Duchamp, a central
figure in the Dada Movement, a protest art style founded in 1916.
Ms. Wood joined the Theosophical Society in New York in 1923 and moved to Los
Angeles five years later. In 1937, she opened a studio. In 1940, she had her
first exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Known as Bea or Beato, Ms. Wood's work is displayed in the permanent
collections of 12 U.S. museums - including the Smithsonian and New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art - as well as at museums around the world.
In 1994, the Smithsonian Institution named her ``Esteemed American Artist''
and California Gov. Pete Wilson declared her a ``California Living Treasure.''
She died a little over a week after celebrating her 105th birthday party with
250 well-wishers.
Ms. Wood's ceramic work features iridescent and lustrous glazes applied to
teapots, bowls and chalices as well as whimsical figures and animal forms. Her
often racy and satirical pieces command as much as $40,000 each.
In 1985, she published an autobiography, ``I Shock Myself,'' which inspired
director James Cameron to center the ``Titanic'' tale around the life of an
aging artist. Only days before her death, she met with Cameron and actress
Gloria Stuart, who fashioned the role of 101-year-old Rose after Ms. Wood.
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