Flannagan, John Bernard [key], 1895–1942, American sculptor, b. Fargo, N.Dak., studied at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. His early life was a bitter struggle against poverty. Too poor to buy quarried stone, he picked up field stones for carving. His sculptures, often of animals, range from profound to humorous in conception and are simple and direct in execution. In 1930 and again in 1932 he lived for a year in Ireland. He is well represented in the museums of various colleges including Vassar, Oberlin, Harvard, and the Univ. of Nebraska. A mountain goat, Figure of Dignity, is in the Metropolitan Museum. He committed suicide in 1942.
See his letters (with an introduction by W. R. Valentiner, 1942).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: American and Canadian Art: Biographies
