Rhoden papers highlight: Beings Anthropomorphic

Contributed by Kelin Baldridge, Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers

Over here in the archives, we recently stumbled upon this enormous planning sketch for one of John Rhoden’s sculptures. The figures depicted in the sketch looked familiar, so we decided to do some digging within the papers to see if we could contextualize it.

Archives staff with the planning sketch for John Rhoden’s Beings Anthropomorphic.

Photographs in the collection revealed that this sketch was for a sculpture titled Beings Anthropomorphic. Captions on the photographs indicate that this sculpture was created specifically for the African American Museum in Philadelphia in 1975. There are no documents or correspondence directly related to this artwork and, as such, we have been unable to confirm the information on the photograph captions.

A label on the photograph suggests the sculpture was installed at the African American Museum in Philadelphia in the mid to late 1970s.

From the photographs, we do know that the artwork was completed and installed somewhere, but we cannot be sure that it was actually installed in the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Furthermore, the sculpture’s current whereabouts are unknown. However, what we do have relating to the sketch could potentially reveal something about John’s artistic planning process.

Small-scale model for Beings Anthropomorphic.

Above is a photograph of a small-scale model of Beings Anthropomorphic. It is evident that this was an earlier model given the slight differences in the figures. Below is a photograph of John with his planning sketch. It is interesting to note the grid imposed on the sketch as well as the inclusion of the weight and cost of the figures.

Having evidence of multiple objects produced in the process of creating an artwork gives an interesting view into both the evolution of Rhoden’s ideas and his creative and logistical artistic planning. John’s papers are full of items that contextualize each other, and give a more complete picture of John’s life and work.

This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.

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