Submit a bio  

Artist Biography & Facts
Jose De Rivera

Jose De Rivera (1904 - 1985) was active/lived in New York, Louisiana.  Jose De Rivera is known for Sculptor-abstraction.

Jose de Rivera was an abstract-expressionis sculptor, who worked in metal. He was born Jose A. Ruiz in 1904 in West Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At age twenty he moved to Chicago and worked as a journeyman for seven years making tools, pipe fitting, and die-casting. He studied art in Chicago's Studio School with John Norton from approximately 1928 to around 1931. In 1932, de Rivera made a trip to Europe and Africa, including Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Egypt and when he returned he knew that he wanted to sculpt.

Employed by the Works Progress Administration-Federal Art Project in 1937-38, de Rivera made the aluminum, "Flight," for the Newark, New Jersey airport.

Many of de Rivera's sculptures are steel or bronze bands twisted into three-dimensional shapes. His earliest sculpture, dating from 1930, was smoothly surfaced, with elemental volumes emphasized. In 1938, with "Red and Black (Double Element)," he opened up his solid-core style by counter-posing two semi-circular al   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 2815 characters.]  Artist bio

Artist auction records

.  askART's database currently holds 65 auction lots for Jose De Rivera (of which 50 auction records sold and 0 are upcoming at auction.)

Artist artworks for sale and wanted

.  There are 0 artworks for sale on our website by galleries and art dealers . There are 1 galleries and art dealers listing works of art by Jose De Rivera as either "Wanted" or "For Sale" .

Research resources

.  askART lists Jose De Rivera in 1 of its research Essays. Jose De Rivera has 11 artist signature examples available in our database.

Similar artists

.  There are 24 similar (related) artists for Jose De Rivera available:    James Brooks,  Irene Rice Pereira,  Lynda Benglis,  John Angus Chamberlain,  Enrico Donati,  Mark di Suvero,  Jennifer Losch Bartlett,  George Segal,  Joseph Cornell,  Conrad Marca-Relli,  Theodoros S Stamos,  Ilya Bolotowsky,  Balcomb (John Wesley) Greene,  Richard Anuszkiewicz,  Robert Arthur Goodnough,  George Warren Rickey,  Donald Baechler,  Alan Davie,  Ross Bleckner,  John McLaughlin,  Edward Avedisian,  Gene B Davis,  Abraham Walkowitz,  Alfred Julio Jensen



Copyright © 1999-2024 askART.com and underlying auction houses. All Rights Reserved. Digital copying of these images and content strictly prohibited; violators will be subject to the law including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Facts about Jose De Rivera

Biography from the Archives of askART

Jose de Rivera was an abstract-expressionis sculptor, who worked in metal. He was born Jose A. Ruiz in 1904 in West Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At age twenty he moved to Chicago and worked as a journeyman for seven years making tools, pipe fitting, and die-casting. He studied art in Chicago's Studio School with John Norton from approximately 1928 to around 1931. In 1932, de Rivera made a trip to Europe and Africa, including Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Egypt and when he returned he knew that he wanted to sculpt.

Employed by the Works Progress Administration-Federal Art Project in 1937-38, de Rivera made the aluminum, "Flight," for the Newark, New Jersey airport.

Many of de Rivera's sculptures are steel or bronze bands twisted into three-dimensional shapes. His earliest sculpture, dating from 1930, was smoothly surfaced, with elemental volumes emphasized. In 1938, with "Red and Black (Double Element)," he opened up his solid-core style by counter-posing two semi-circular aluminum sheets. Until the early 1950s, de Rivera explored the space-defining and space-enveloping qualities of bent sheet-metal, the inner and outer surfaces often painted different colors.

In the 1950s, he concentrated on forming twisting, round, stainless-steel tubes of varying thickness, and often mounted them on rotating discs so that the development of the shape can be better seen. Their gleaming surfaces reflect light, which makes them seem to dematerialize in their passage through space.

For de Rivera, "the content, beauty and source of excitement are inherent in the interdependenceof the space, material and light, which are the structure."

In 1953, he taught sculpture at Brooklyn College. De Rivera died in 1985.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:
1983
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, November 1983.
1980
"Jose de Rivera:Sculpture Constructions",Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, November 15- December 18.
1978
"Jose de Rivera:Sculpture: Constructions", Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, October 28 - November 25.
1975
"Construction #158",Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, November 15- December 19.
1972
"Jose de Rivera: Retrospective Exhibition 1930-1971"
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Isaac Delgado Museum of American Art, New Orleans
La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla,California, February 20- April 16.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 8-June 8.
"Concurrent Exhibition- Jose de Rivera Retrospective", Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, The Whitney Museum of
American Art.
1969
"Recent Sculpture",Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York,October 4-30.

Source:

Matthew Baigell, "Dictionary of American Art"

Richard Gray Gallery, www.richardgraygallery.com


** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at [email protected].

Share an image of the Artist: [email protected].
Top