RODERICK MEAD

Roderick Mead was born in South Orange, New Jersey, on June 25, 1900. He received his degree in Fine Arts in 1925 from Yale University. After moving to New York, Mead studied under the noted painter George Luks and attended the Grand Central School of Art, where he studied watercolor technique from George Pearse Ennis.

In 1931 Mead relocated to the Spanish island of Majorca and later moved to Paris where in 1934 he met and married Jarvis Kerr whose family lived in Carlsbad. While in Paris Mead studied with Stanley Hayter at Atelier 17, a studio that very much influence his work and where others such as Miro, Picasso, Ernst, Giacometti, and Kandinsky also worked. In 1939 the impending war made it necessary to return to the U.S. where the couple settled in 1941 at the home of Jarvis’ father in Carlsbad. 

A 1936 issue of “Beaux-Arts” reported on Mead. The article said there was “much life, movement and the unexpected …” in his work. “He knows how to use color and light in sweeping and penetrating rhythm.” Since that time, many have tried to name his fantastically imaginative style of animal and plant forms.

His works have been exhibited in Paris with Le Salon des Surindependants and Le Petit Palais; Bordighere in the International Biennale; Museums of the Hague, Rome, Goteborg, and in the United States in national exhibitions. His name appears in World Biography, Who’s Who in American Art, Biographical Encyclopedia of the World, and American Prize Prints of the 20th Century. Roderick Mead died on May 5, 1971.