Daniel Rhodes (1911-1989)

Daniel Rhodes (1943)

Biography

Daniel Rhodes had two interesting and productive careers. By age 30 he had already mastered mural painting in the style of the American Scene. But at that time he started to work in clay, ultimately becoming one of the most respected teachers and writers in the field of studio ceramics.

Rhodes was born in Fort Dodge, IA in 1911 and had his first instruction in art in summer classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1929-1933 he attended the University of Chicago, majoring in art history. He worked with Grant Wood at the Stone City Art Colony in the period 1932-1933, after which he studied with the regionalist artist John Stuart Curry at the Art Students League in New York.

From 1935-1938 Rhodes worked as a painter and muralist in his hometown in Iowa. He participated in the Fort Dodge Art Build, lectured at the Blanden Art Gallery (now the Blanden Memorial Art Museum), and exhibited frequently at the Iowa State Fair. His first commissions for Post Office murals came in 1937: one at Storm Lake, IA and another at Glen Ellyn, IL. Rhodes and a colleague Howard C. Johnson were also commissioned for a mural in the Agricultural Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, but their work was removed and destroyed in the wake of public criticism: the style was too modern, the Iowans depicted in the mural looked too solemn, and there were some factual inaccuracies in the work.

Rhodes won the Sweepstakes Award at the State Fair for three consecutive years - 1938-1940. He received another Post Office commission - for a fresco secco work in Marion, IA - in 1939.

In 1939-1940 Rhodes taught at the Art Students' Workshop in Des Moines and lectured at the Ottumwa Art Center and Iowa State University. He married Lillyan Estelle Jacobs of Des Moines, a potter and sculptor, in 1940. And, importantly, in the same year he studied at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, where - like his wife - he began to look at clay as a working medium for his art.

Rhodes completed several more murals - Post Office murals in Poggott, AR (1941) and Clayton, MO (1942), and a mural for the cafeteria of the Main Navy Building in Washington, DC (which was demolished in 1971). But his career was now clearly on a different track. From 1940-1942 he studied at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. This was a pre-eminent ceramics program, having been established in 1900 by Charles Fergus Binns, who directed it for three decades.

Rhodes was the first Master of Fine Arts to graduate from the New York State College of Ceramics (1942). He remained in the Rochester, NY area, working for the Glidden Pottery company. In 1943 Daniel and Lillyan moved to California, where Daniel did research in high temperature ceramics for the Henry J. Kaiser corporation in San Jose.

Rhodes's next move was to Menlo Park, CA. He was on the faculty at Stanford University in 1946 and at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1946-1947. He built a full-scale ceramic studio in 1947, where he produced thrown and cast ware for Gump's Department Store in San Francisco.

Rhodes moved back east in 1947, taking a teaching position at the New York State College of Ceramics, where he remained until 1973, with occasional work at other schools, such as the University of Southern California (1952-1953), Black Mountain College, and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, ME (1961).

Rhodes received a Fullbright Fellowship in 1962-1963, which he spent studying ceramics in Japan, particularly Tamba-tachikui ware. In 1964 he developed a technique for using fiberglass to enable the firing of large ceramic pieces. He had a one-man show at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in 1967, followed by many other such shows.

Rhodes received a teaching citation from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts in 1973. The same year the Blanden Memorial Art Museum held a retrospective for him in Fort Dodge. Rhodes spent the years 1977-1980 at the University of California in Santa Cruz. A Rhodes retrospective was put on at Iowa State University in 1986. Following his first wife's death in 1986, he married again, to Mary Beth Coulter. He and his second wife were traveling for a series of workshops when he died from a heart attack in Reno, NV in 1989.

Water
Head
Vase

Critical Analysis

Rhodes was a very competent painter of the American Scene in his 20s. But, like many other artists of that era, his interests were broader than that. Unlike those who expanded their horizons into abstract painting, Rhodes adopted an entirely new medium and became an expert and innovator in studio ceramics. His work in that medium was well-regarded and commanded reasonable prices. But his greatest contribution to the field was probably from the many ceramicists he educated at Alfred University and from the various books he published on the techniques of ceramic art. Notable among these are Clay and Glazes for the Potter (1957), Stoneware & Procelain (1959), and Kilns Design Construction & Operation (1968).

Murals

References

  1. Daniel Rhodes (Wikipedia).
  2. Daniel Rhodes (askART).
  3. Daniel Rhodes (Alfred University).
  4. Daniel Rhodes (Chelsea River Gallery).
  5. Daniel Rhodes (Scribd). Added by keene.
  6. Daniel Rhodes (The Marks Project).
  7. Milena Olesinska, Daniel Rhodes - American Ceramic Artist, Exposition Art Blog August 18 (2020).
  8. Daniel Rhodes Centennial (Daniel Rhodes Centennial).
  9. Ed Shears, Daniel Rhodes Ceramics, Artabys January 8 (2022).
  10. Daniel Rhodes Retrospective, Blanden Art Museum.
  11. Daniel Rhodes, 78, Ceramic Sculptor, Dies, New York Times July 28 (1989).
  12. New York Times News Service, Daniel Rhodes, 78, Ceramics Sculptor, Teacher, Chicago Tribune July 30 (1989).
  13. Notes local artist Rhodes dead at 78, Santa Cruz Sentinel July 25 (1989).
  14. Tamba, One of Japan’s Six Ancient Kiln Districts (Japan Travel).