José Ruiz de Rivera (September 18, 1904 March 12, 1985) was an American abstract sculptor.

Life and career

José Ruiz de Rivera was born in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

and grew up in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. He dropped out of high school, but finished at a boarding school. He worked on a plantation fixing farm machinery. In 1924, he moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He studied drawing with muralist

John W. Norton John Warner Norton (7 March 1876 – 7 January 1934) was an American painter and muralist who pioneered the field in the United States. Norton was born in Lockport, Illinois, the son of John Lyman Norton and Ada Clara Gooding Norton. The family ...

and worked for the

Federal Arts Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. In 1932, he moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He also worked as a model maker for Sikorsky Aircraft. He served in the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and at the Training Aids Development Center. In 1946, he had his first one-man show at the Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York City. In 1947–52, de Rivera's ''Black, yellow, red'' (1942) was exhibited in the 25-venue ''Painting toward architecture'' exhibition organized by the

Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art The Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art (c. 1945-55) was formed in Meriden, Connecticut as part of the Miller Company. The collection was formed by then-CEO Burton Tremaine Sr. and his wife, Miller Co. art director Emily Hall Tremaine in c. ...

. The artwork received a lot of media attention during the exhibition and was the artwork spotlighted (via the one photo accompanying the article) in the ''New York Times'' article about the first venue of the exhibition at the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

in Hartford, CT. A photo of the artwork was also used to accompany an article about the exhibition in ''Newsweek''. ''Black, yellow, red'' was also featured in

Henry-Russell Hitchcock Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture. Early life He ...

's accompanying book ''Painting toward architecture'' (1948), with foreword by

Alfred Barr Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (January 28, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of ...

of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The artwork was also the basis for the cover of a Miller Company heater design catalogue, thematically called "A spiralating heat wave".Louchheim, Aline B. (December 1947). "Abstraction on the assembly line". ''ARTnews''. Retrieved January 22, 2017. In 2002–03, the Valerie Carberry Gallery in Chicago exhibited ''Jose de Rivera: Abstract Sculpture, Painting and Works on Paper''. On March 12, 1984, at the age of 80, de Rivera died at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City, five weeks after suffering a stroke.

Works

*''Black, Yellow, Red'', (1942). National Gallery of Art, 1977.75.8 *American Pavilion at the Expo 58 *''Construction #46'',

Chazen Museum of Art The Chazen Museum of Art is an art museum located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The Chazen Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. History Until 2005, the Museum was known regularly as th ...

*''Form'',

1964 World's Fair The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...

*'' Infinity'', 1967, National Museum of American History *''Construction #105'', 1968,

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

*''Construction #35'', 1956,

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...

, 66.1277 *''Construction #76'', 1961, Hirshhorn, 66.1279 *''Construction #107'', 1969, Hirshhorn, 72.91 *''Construction, Red and Black'', 1954, Hirshhorn, 66.1278 *''Construction in Yellow, Black, Red and White'', c. 1949–1952, Hirshhorn, 86.1412 *''Homage to the World of Minkowski'', 1954–1955,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, 55.204ab *''Construction #158'', 1974–1975, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.432ab *''A Wishing Star'', 1956,

Dallas Statler Hilton The Statler Hotel & Residences is a hotel of mid-twentieth century design located at 1914 Commerce Street in downtown Dallas, Texas (USA). It is located on the edge of the Farmers Market District and adjacent to Main Street Garden Park. The ...

Sources

* *

References

External links

*
"Oral history interview with José de Rivera, February 24, 1968"
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera, Jose de 1904 births 1985 deaths Artists from Baton Rouge, Louisiana United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Federal Art Project artists