| George Rhoads | ||
| Birth Date: January 27, 1926 |
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Artist Gallery |
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| George Rhoads, a painter, sculptor and one of the first American origami masters was born in Chicago. He is known for the large audio kinetic sculptures that attract and engage people throughout the world. Balls roll and percussion devices clatter and chime in airports, hospitals, art museums, since museum, shopping centers and other public places.
Rhoads educated at the University of Chicago and Chicago Art Institute and was obsessed with drawing at a very early age.
William Steig, in Eric Protter’s book, “Painters on Painting” said of Rhoads painting: “George Rhoads is a ‘visionary’ painter. He uses image not to tell us something about his visual sensations, about the way his eye responds to seen objects or to tell us something exclusively about himself, about his personality, as the action painters seem to do. He presents us with a way of viewing and of imagining, that is, of thinking about and of dealing emotionally with ‘reality’…I think it is art of a high order.”
During the 1960s Rhoads' paintings initially were an expressionistic view of the big city. He then turned to painting in the tradition of the Renaissance masters and sold many of these, including very popular tromp-l’oeil paintings; during this time he also painted a series of scenes from American history and folklore. It was during this period that he began to make copper kinetic fountains and rolling ball sculptures. Rhoads moved to the Finer Lakes area in 1970, where he earned his living from painting, sculpture and fountains. In the 1970s and 80s commission for sculpture increased. His first large public art commission in 1982 was for the Port Authority bus terminal in New York City, which is still enjoyed by travelers waiting for their buses.
Rhodes lives in Ithaca, New York and LaQuinta, California and continues to paint and design pinball machines.
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