Vibrant To The End, Artist Beato Dies At 105

Beatrice Wood of Ojai, world renowned for her lustrously glazed ceramic sculpture, her whimsical drawings and an oft-quoted affinity for chocolates and young men, died Thursday - nine days after her 105th birthday.

Wood was pronounced dead about 10:50 a.m. in the combination studio and home where she had welcomed all comers for decades. A small group of friends and relatives surrounded her bed.

“It was very quiet and very peaceful,” said Nancy Martinez, her studio assistant for the past two years. “She did not even become very ill. She just reached a milestone in her life, and I believe this is the time she chose to go.”

The artist whose work was shown and sold at museums and galleries across the country and throughout Europe died of natural causes, an investigator with the Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office said. Known professionally as Beato, Wood wrote more than a half-dozen books and a play, and created hundreds of drawings and lithographs in addition to her prodigious output of ceramics and ceramic sculpture. Her occasionally ribald work dating back to the World War I era helped redefine ceramics as an art form.

An Ojai resident for 50 years, Wood had stopped creating ceramics, though she continued to glaze them. Clad in her trademark saris and silver necklaces and bracelets, the artist saw visitors only by appointment during the past two years. Still, she enthusiastically greeted 256 attending her birthday party March 3. She also provided much of the inspiration for one of the leading characters in the current hit film “Titanic.”

Its director, James Cameron, visited Wood before filming to see how a 100-year-old woman would look and act. As a result, the “Rose” character - played by Oscar-nominee Gloria Stuart - is seen fashioning pots on a wheel. Tom Neff, who directed a prize-winning biographical film on Wood entitled “Mama of Da Da,” said the artist inspired most people she met.

“She was one of the most radiant people I’ve ever met and certainly one of the wisest,” Neff said. “I was impressed by her love of life, her deep understanding of it, her acceptance of people and her ability to laugh at others and at herself. I think that everyone will remember her with a smile.”

Born in San Francisco in 1893, Wood grew up in New York and became enchanted by art in France. She was prominent in the so-called Da Da movement, an eclectic approach embraced by New York-area artists immediately after World War I. In 1995, she talked about creativity.

Wood began visiting Ojai regularly in the 1920s, becoming an ardent student of the late East Indian philosopher Krishnamurti. She moved to Ojai in 1948 and taught for many years at the Happy Valley School, one of her favorite philanthropic causes.

Quoted often as saying her only passions were chocolate and young men, she had plenty of both all her life. Most visitors brought her favorite confection to Wood’s studio. While she hinted at being married once or twice, the artist talked often of many men.

The great loves of her life were French diplomat-turned-novelist Henri Pierre Roche and artist Marcele DuChamp, who in 1913 fragmented the art world with his painting “Nude Descending a Staircase.” Wood, Roche and Duchamp were thought to have inspired Roche’s 1953 novel “Jules et Jim” about a fabled menage a trois.

In 1985, Wood wrote an autobiography entitled “I Shock Myself.” She was the subject of numerous other books, magazine articles, television interviews and films. Olavee Martin, who met Wood in 1982 and produced “Mama of Da Da” when Wood turned 100, said many held her in awe. At its world premier the film had to be shown twice to accommodate the crowd. It is still shown frequently on public television.

“She was one of the most exciting women I have ever met in any age bracket,” said Martin, who described herself as a close friend. “Her letters - I have about 20 - are full of humor with sketches down the sides. Her greatest plus was her humor.”

Wood showed some of that humor when she turned 100. Asked what she would like to do, she had a quick reply: “I’d like to eat all the chocolate ice cream I possibly could and have time to read all the detective stories that are printed,” she said. Asked why she thought people still found her interesting, Wood said “I’d be interested in any old bag who was still working at age 100.”