Hometown artist ‘raised’ up forever

by in At the Museums dept
“Three Headed Lion” 1954, Bronze, 20 x 37 x 12 inches, by John Rhoden (American, 1916–2001), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The John Walter Rhoden and Richanda Phillips Rhoden Collection, 2019.27.3; image credit: Adrian Cubillas for PAFA.
Richanda, undated, wood on marble base, 26 x 14 x 13 ½ inches, by John Rhoden (American, 1916–2001), The John Rhoden Collection at PAFA (JR066), promised gift to the Birmingham Museum of Art; image credit: Sahar Coston-Hardy/Esto.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (PNAN) – On view at the Birmingham Museum of Art, through Sunday, April 20, 2025. This exhibition, “Determined to Be: The Sculpture of John Rhoden” presents the first comprehensive retrospective of his artwork was organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, featuring approximately fifty sculptures in bronze, wood and stone, the exhibition illustrates the visual and technical mastery of this award-winning artist.

Born and raised in Birmingham, John Rhoden (1916–2001) was an accomplished twentieth-century African American sculptor. With a sculptural sensibility defined by his extensive world travels, sensualism and a breadth of visual influences, Rhoden worked in a style that was ahead of his time.

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth (1992) by John Rhoden as it is displayed at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The statue is displayed in the front of the building near the entrance. Photo: David Bains (2019).

Rhoden attended Industrial High School (now A. H. Parker High School) in Birmingham before attending Talladega College. In 1938, Rhoden moved to New York City where he studied at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research before launching into a sculpture career that took him around the world, resulting in major public commissions throughout the United States and in Birmingham, where his sculpture of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth stands outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The artist’s first solo museum exhibition was presented by BMA in 1985 and a group of works featured in the exhibition will also remain in the Museum’s permanent collection, being, the first sculptures to be gifted by his estate to ensure that his legacy remains celebrated in his hometown art museum in perpetuity.