Description:

John Bernard Flannagan
New York, North Dakota, (1895 - 1942)
Two Horses, 1930
wood engraving
Pencil signed lower right, numbered 23/50 lower left.

Biography from The Columbus Museum of Art, Georgia: John Bernard Flannagan's childhood is often described as tragic. His father, a newspaperman, died when he was only five years old and the economic constrictions of raising three sons forced Flannagan's mother to place her children in an orphanage. At age seven Flannagan began to carve in wood with a pocketknife. Formal art instruction evolved through three years of classes at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Flannagan served as a Merchant Marine before moving to New York where personal destitution forced him to sleep many nights in the city's subways. In 1922, he was rescued by the generosity of the artist Arthur B. Davies who allowed him to work on his farm and encouraged Flannagan's active schedule of painting and sculpting during this year of recuperation.

Flannagan received recognition with his first group exhibition at the age of twenty-eight at the Montross Gallery in New York. Soon after, he became a consistent exhibitor at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. This gallery would provide Flannagan with a stipend that was crucial to his financial needs for ten years of his career. (1)

Although Flannagan's stone sculptures may be more widely recognized today, his artistic career began with woodcarvings such as Mother Earth (ca. 1926). Flannagan employed the process of direct carving, giving him immediate contact with the source of wood or stone rather than relying on assistants to produce a cast from his model. The artist stated, "My aim is to produce sculpture with such ease, freedom and simplicity that it hardly seems carved but rather to have endured so always." (2)

Eventually he abandoned woodcarving, making Mother Earth a rare and distinguished example of his work. He migrated towards stone, believing the medium's inherent and literal strength produced additional challenges for his work. Flannagan developed consistent themes and styles in his sculpture. He explored nature as his primary subject matter, although he returned to the figure periodically.

Sources include:
1. Letters of John B. Flannagan, with an introduction by W.R. Valentiner (New York: Curt Valentiner, 1942). Dorothy C Miller, editor, The Sculpture of John B. Flannagan (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1942).

2. Quoted in Martha Candler Cheney's Modern Art in America (New York: Whittlesey House, 1939), 156.

Submitted by the staff of the Columbus Museum

  • Dimensions: 12 1/2"H x 9 1/2"W (sheet)
  • Medium: wood engraving

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October 7, 2023 11:00 AM EDT
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