John Storrs

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'Forms in Space, Number 1', stainless steel and copper sculpture by John Storrs, 1927, Metropolitan Museum of Art

'Head', woodcut on paper by John Storrs, c. 1920, Smithsonian American Art Museum

John Storrs, also known as John Henry Bradley Storrs, John Bradley Storrs and John H. Storrs, was a pioneer American modernist sculptor who was born in Chicago in 1885. In 1905, he traveled to Berlin to study singing, but he soon decided to become a sculptor. He studied with Lorado Taft at the Art Institute of Chicago and with Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By 1911, he was living in Paris, where he studied with Auguste Rodin and also attended the Académie Julian. He gradually moved from representational sculpture and wood engravings to the machine-like sculptures for which he is best known.

In 1914, Storrs married the writer Marguerite Deville Chabrol and divided his time between France and the United States. In the 1930s, Storrs turned his attention to abstract painting that often suggested the human figure. During World War II Storrs was twice arrested and imprisoned by the German occupation forces. He remained productive until his death in 1956. Upon being released, he returned in a weakened state to his studio in Mer and worked there until his death in 1956.

[edit] References

• Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Forerunners of American Abstraction; Painters: Charles Demuth, Arthur G. Dove, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Joseph Stella; Sculptors: John B. Flannagan, John Storrs, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, 1971.
• Frackman, Noel, John Storrs, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986.
• Hirschl and Adler Galleries , Six American Modernists: Marsden Hartley, Gaston Lachaise, Elie Nadelman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, John Storrs New York, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1991.
• Rutgers University Art Gallery, Vanguard American Sculpture, 1913-1939, New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University, 1979.
• Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, John Storrs and John Flannagan, Sculpture and Works on Paper, Williamstown, Mass., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1980.
• Storrs, John Henry Bradley, John Storrs, Chicago 1885-Mer 1956, Musée de l'Orléanais, Château Dunois, Beaugency, 1987, Beaugency, France, Musée de l'Orléanais, 1987.
• Storrs, John Henry Bradley and Meredith E. Ward, John Storrs, Rhythm of Line, New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1993.