Beulah Woodard
Beulah Woodard | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 11, 1895 |
| Died | July 13, 1955 (aged 59) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Polytechnic High School Otis Art Institute Los Angeles Art School University of Southern California |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Notable work | Maudelle African Woman Bad Boy Mother and Child Fulah Kunda |
| Awards | Purchase award for sculpture at the All City Art Festival |
| Patron(s) | Miriam Matthews James Rodney Smith |
Beulah Ecton Woodard (November 11, 1895 – July 13, 1955) was an African-American sculptor based in California.
Biography
Beulah Ecton was born near Frankfort, Ohio, on November 11, 1895. She developed a lifelong fascination with African culture at the age of 12 when her family was visited by an African national.[1] Her family moved to California where she lived near Los Angeles in what would become Vernon. She attended Los Angeles Polytechnic High School, where she studied architectural drawing. She started working with clay in her early 30s, but was dissuaded from the pursuit by her family in 1926. She took courses at the Otis Art Institute, the Los Angeles Art School, and the University of Southern California. She counted Glen Lukens among her tutors. She married Brady Woodard in 1928. Woodard had her first show in February 1935 in the storefront window for the California News weekly.[2] Her work was displayed at the Vernon Branch Library and the Los Angeles Central Library.[3] She was the first African-American artist to exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum with her 1935 solo exhibition.[1]
Woodard used various media to create her sculptures, including bronze, wood, terracotta, and papier-mâché.[1] In her sculptures, she replicated the braided hairstyles, jewelry and headdresses of Ekoi, Luba, Hemba and Mangbetu peoples.[4] Her terracotta work Maudelle, made ca. 1937–38, is a realistic portrait of African-American concert dancer Maudelle Bass Weston and was created without the use of sculptural models or drawings.[1]
Woodard was active in her community and lectured at various educational institutions. She was a member of Our Authors Study Circle, a women's book club affiliated with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History that persuaded the office of mayor Fletcher Bowron to enact Los Angeles' first Negro History Week.[5] In 1937 she was a key organizer of the Los Angeles Negro Art Association. In 1950 she established the Eleven Associated Artist Gallery. She placed third in the All-City Art Festival in 1953. Woodard died on July 13, 1955, prior to a German exhibition of her work.[3]
Further reading
- Arvey, Verna (Winter 1944). "By Her Own Bootstraps". Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life (22).
References
- ^ a b c d "Maudelle". University of Missouri: Museum of Art and Archaeology. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
- ^ Wilson, Judith (2002). "How the Invisible Woman Got Herself on the Cultural Map: Black Women Artists in California". Art, Women, California 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections. Berkeley [u.a.]: Univ. of California Press. pp. 207–209. ISBN 978-0-520-23066-8.
- ^ a b "Beulah Woodard was an early California artist". African American Registry. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
- ^ Farrington, Lisa E. (2004). Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 92–95. ISBN 978-0-19-516721-4.
- ^ Widener, Daniel (2010). Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-0-8223-9262-0.
- 1895 births
- 1955 deaths
- African-American sculptors
- American women sculptors
- Artists from Ohio
- 20th-century American sculptors
- 20th-century women artists
- People from Ross County, Ohio
- Artists from Los Angeles
- Sculptors from California
- Otis College of Art and Design alumni
- University of Southern California alumni