Editing Beatrice Wood (section)

==Dada and the Avant-garde==

[[File:Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Beatrice Wood at the Broadway Photo Shop, NYC, 1917.jpg|thumb|right|[[Marcel Duchamp]], [[Francis Picabia]], and Beatrice Wood at the Broadway Photo Shop, New York City, 1917]]

Wood's involvement in the Avant Garde began with her introduction to<ref>{{cite book|last=Bobbye|first=Tigerman|title=Handbook of California Design|year=2013|publisher=The Los Angeles Country Museum of Art and The MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England|isbn=978-0262518383|pages=302–303}}</ref> [[Marcel Duchamp]]. He and his friend [[Henri-Pierre Roché]], a man fourteen years her senior, met her in New York in 1916 while she was visiting the composer [[Edgard Varèse]], who was hospitalized with a broken leg. The three worked together to create ''[[The Blind Man]]'' and subsequently ''[[Rongwrong]]'', magazines that were two of the earliest manifestations of the [[Dada]] art movement in the United States. The publication was intended to defend the submission of a urinal by Duchamp who had submitted it under the name R. Mutt to the First Exhibition of the [[Society of Independent Artists]] in April 1917. Wood wrote the oft-quoted statement that appeared in the publication as an unsigned editorial: "As for plumbing, that is absurd. The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges." Wood also submitted to the exhibition and her piece '''Un peu d'eau dans du savon''<nowiki/>', which she had made alongside Duchamp in his studio, was accepted and was displayed. The work was the image of a nude female figure rising from her bath, but because Wood attached an actual piece of soap to what she called the "tactical position", the work drew a great deal of attention and critical reaction.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sculpture 1900-1940|last=Curtis|first=Penelope|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|pages=144}}</ref>

===Roché, Duchamp, and ''Jules et Jim''===

Though she was most involved with Roché, the two often spent time with Duchamp, creating a kind of love triangle. This was not, however, the inspiration for Roché's 1953 novel, {{ill|Jules et Jim (novel)|fr|Jules et Jim (roman)|lt=Jules et Jim |italic=yes}} (or the [[Jules et Jim|1962 film adaptation]] by [[François Truffaut]]).<ref name="Smith" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://helfenfinearts.com/biogs/woodFset.html |title=Spencer Jon Helfen Fine Arts<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=October 30, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418234524/http://helfenfinearts.com/biogs/woodFset.html |archive-date=April 18, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''Jules et Jim'' was based on the triangle involving Roché, German writer [[Franz Hessel]], and Helen Grund, who married Hessel.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120722065905/http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/23/julesjim.html Bright Lights Film Journal | Jules and Jim<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Roché alluded to the Wood-Roché-Duchamp triangle in his unfinished novel, ''Victor''.<ref>The unfinished text of ''Victor'' has been published in English as [https://atlaspress.co.uk/product/marcel-duchamp-henri-pierre-roche-beatrice-wood-three-new-york-dadas-and-the-blindman/ ''Three New York Dadas and The Blindman''] (London: Atlas Press, 2013). Retrieved 22 April 2023.</ref> Wood herself saw little resemblance between ''Jules et Jim'' and her relationship with Roché and Duchamp, writing in her 1985 autobiography, ''I Shock Myself'':
{{blockquote|Roché lived in Paris with his wife Denise, and had by now written ''Jules et Jim''{{nbsp}}... Because the story concerns two young men who are close friends and a woman who loves them both, people have wondered how much was based on Roché, Marcel, and me. I cannot say what memories or episodes inspired Roché, but the characters bear only passing resemblance to those of us in real life! (p. 136)}}

===Arensbergs and their circle===

Wood met the art patrons [[Walter Arensberg|Walter and Louise Arensberg]], who became her lifelong friends. From 1915 through 1920, they held regular gatherings at their apartment at 33 West 67th Street in Manhattan in which artists, writers, and poets were invited to gather, where they were given drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and engaged in intellectual discussions. Besides Duchamp, Roché, and her, the group included many other artists of the avant-garde: [[Edgard Varese]], [[Charles Sheeler]], [[Joseph Stella]], [[Man Ray]] and [[Francis Picabia]]. Wood's relationship with these artists and others associated with the avant-garde movement of the early 20th century, earned her the designation as "Mama of Dada".