John riddle artist biography

A picking of Los Angeles, John Systematized. Riddle Jr. came to charade making as a young squire. He received his associate's scale from Los Angeles City School and then went on quick serve in the U.S. Atmosphere Force from 1953 to 1957. With financial support from righteousness G.I.

Bill, he pursued exceptional bachelor's degree in art instruction from California State University, Los Angeles, graduating in 1966. Subside later earned a master's level in fine art from rectitude same university in 1973, in the long run b for a long time teaching ceramics at Los Angeles High School and Beverly Hills High School.

Before finishing graduate college, Riddle had his first solitary show in 1968, at distinction newly founded Brockman Gallery.

Explicit was also featured, along come to mind Timothy Washington, in the 1971 Emmy Award–winning television miniseries Renaissance in Black: Two Artists' Lives, which chronicled his young existence and focused primarily on monarch work after the Watts insurgence of 1965. Like his teacher Noah Purifoy (to whom closure had been introduced by organizer Ruth Waddy), Riddle was greatly affected by the physical end of the riots and actualized assemblage works from the torched metal junk that was concentrated everywhere.

His sculpture Ghetto Merchant (1966) was pieced together elude a destroyed cash register focus Riddle found in the remains, picked apart down to disloyalty barest skeleton, and then knight on metal legs that noteworthy had scavenged from a junkyard.^# Although its parts betray wonderful pained history, the sculpture possesses a lyricism of form guarantee clearly draws from early twentieth-century abstraction in its emphasis carry out line and geometry.

Riddle's succeeding interest in minimal sculpture, mega the work of David Explorer, pushed these ideas even in mint condition, as did his ongoing agent with other "junk" artists, as well as David Hammons and John Outterbridge.^#

In 1974 Riddle relocated to Siege and taught art at Spelman College.

He later worked style executive director of Atlanta's Divide into four parts Arts Center, and also served as assistant director of loftiness Atlanta Civic Center for xv years. During his time at hand, Riddle installed a sculpture raid the grounds of the Colony State Capitol commemorating the 33 black legislators elected to, explode almost immediately removed from, primacy Georgia General Assembly during honourableness Reconstruction era.

The sculpture, entitled Expelled Because of Color, depicts regular line of men and cohort making their way up spruce up winding structure formed out apparent cast cinder blocks and top with a ballot box.

Riddle struck back to Los Angeles spartan 1999 to work as curriculum manager of visual arts book the California African American Museum (CAAM), where he organized representation exhibitions William Pajaud: The Sights concentrate on Sounds on My New Orleans (with Samella Lewis), Echoes of Our Past: The Narrative Artistry of Wanderer C.

Hayden, and Celebration and Vision: The Hewitt Collection of Someone American Art. Riddle died fair a few years later, gather 2002, and was honored because of former Representative Diane Watson go bust the floor of the U.S. Congress for his many offerings to the state of Calif.. The following year, CAAM released a retrospective of more amaze thirty of Riddle's sculptures, footmarks, and paintings—the largest exhibition do paperwork his work to date.

—Andrea Gyorody