Thaddeus Mosley: Forest

Thaddeus Mosley (b. 1926, Pennsylvania) transforms wood into inventive abstract forms that source inspiration from the art of the African diaspora, jazz, and the European modernist avant-garde. Using only a mallet, chisel, and masterful joinery techniques, Mosley, largely self-taught, reworks felled timber from local sawmills into monumental biomorphic expressions inspired by ancient and modern cultures from around the world. Mosley was nick- named “the forest” by abstract painter Sam Gilliam, who noted he is the “keeper of old trees, round trees, big trees, heavy trees.” The BMA’s exhibition will feature five recent large-scale sculptures centered in the John Waters Rotunda, offering visitors a unique opportunity to circumnavigate Mosley’s dazzling abstract forms.