Determined to Be: The Sculpture of John Rhoden

Born and raised in Birmingham, John Rhoden (1916–2001) was an accomplished twentieth-century African American sculptor. This exhibition presents the first comprehensive retrospective of his artwork.

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. Featuring approximately fifty sculptures in bronze, wood, and stone, the exhibition illustrates the visual and technical mastery of this award-winning artist.

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 Birmingham Museum of Art proudly presented Rhoden’s first solo museum exhibition in 1985, and is excited to welcome back this important artist with a retrospective show. A group of works featured in the exhibition will also remain in the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art, the first sculptures by Rhoden to join the museum’s collection. This gift from the Rhoden Estate will ensure that Rhoden’s legacy remains celebrated in his hometown art museum in perpetuity.

Determined to Be: The Sculpture of John Rhoden is the first comprehensive retrospective of John Rhoden’s work, and was organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.