Thaddeus Mosley

Thaddeus G. Mosley (born 1926) is an American sculptor who works mostly in wood and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Mosley was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, where both sides of his family were farmers and miners.^[1] After high school graduation, he "entered as support company in California supplying Liberty ships" for the U.S. Navy.^[1] He was stationed on Peleliu Island in the western Pacific.^[1] With his ex-serviceman's grant he attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts with a double major in English and Journalism in 1950.^[2] While in school he worked for photographer Isadore Frichman and the Pittsburgh Photo Guild, developing negatives in the darkroom a few hours each week.^[1] His interest in the visual arts was further piqued through a course titled "World Cultures," where he learned about different African art traditions and European modernist artists such as Constantin Brâncuși.^[1]

He met his first wife Ruth Ray (separated in 1960) at a dance and the two were married after his first year of university. They had three children together.^[1] They settled in Pittsburgh and he took a job with the U.S. Postal Service after graduation.^[3] He also worked as a freelance journalist and photographer in the 1950s for the Pittsburgh Courier and various national magazines such as Ebony, Sepia, and Jet.^[1] Articles he wrote on jazz musicians and athletes would later serve as inspiration for his carving and sculpture.^[3]

Mosley became interested in pursuing sculpture through his frequent visits to the Carnegie Museum of Art and through his own art historical research at public libraries.^[1] He "was inspired to take up wood carving" after viewing a Scandinavian furniture display at a local department in the late 1950s.^[4] The display included wood carvings of birds and fish, rather than paying $75 apiece for the animals, Mosley decided to make his own.^[1] This was the beginning of his lifelong passion for wood carving and his participation and activism in the Pittsburgh art scene, which would continue for the rest of his life.^[1]

His friendships with other local artists such as William Palmer and Carl Smith were integral to his practice, as the three would exchange ideas and visit art openings together.^[1] In 1961, along with African-American artists Charles Anderson and Lee Cowan, Mosely founded the Watt Lane Art Club.^[1] The three saw the club as the start of grassroots movement to establish a supported African-American art scene in Pittsburgh, and other artists soon joined.^[1] The club expanded to over 20 members, changed their name to Group One and ran a community gallery in the Manchester neighborhood until there disbandment in 1964.^[1] The name Group One was likely a reference to the more established Pittsburgh art collective called Group A (previously known as The Abstract Group), of which Mosley has also been a member.^[5]

Mosley remarried Yvonne Reed (they had three children), and the two moved to the Southside of Pittsburgh where he would have more studio space.^[1] He became well known to the general public in Pittsburgh after a local news channel, WQED, aired a special on the artist highlighting his studio.^[1] In the years that followed he continued to work for the U.S. Postal Service and exhibit his sculpture locally.^[1] In 1968, "he was invited to have a one man exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art," which earned him national recognition.^[1] He has continually advocated for the African-American art community in Pittsburgh, including as an officer of the Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors and a board member for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.^[3]

Major exhibitions include the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA)'s Artist of the Year show in 1979; the Three Rivers Arts Festival with Selma Burke in 1990; and the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in 1995. He also is 1 of 32 artists to be featured in the 2018 Carnegie International.^[6]

Mosley's awards include the 1999 Governor's Award for Artist of the Year in Pennsylvania Visual Arts, the PCA 2000 Cultural Award, and the PCA 2002 Service to the Arts Award and Exhibition.^[3] The latter award, first awarded in 1997, is given to a member of the local arts community for demonstrating inspiration, involvement, commitment and passion for the arts.^[7] The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called Mosley "a fixture at local art openings" and said:

A constant contributor to charity auctions (he recently donated two pieces to the Sharry Evrett Scholarship Award auction and created a penguin for Sweetwater Center for the Arts' Penguins on Parade auction), he also is widely respected as an instructor, having given countless workshops on woodcarving at colleges and art centers locally and regionally. Most notable has been the Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington, Fayette County, where he has taught wood sculpture every summer for more than 20 years.^[8]

A 45-minute documentary on Mosley's life, Thaddeus Mosley: Sculptor, was completed in 2012.^[2]

In October 2022, Mosley's sculptures were part of the inaugural edition of Paris + par Art Basel.^[9] Curated by Annabelle Ténèze, Director of Les Abattoirs, Thaddeus Mosley in La Suite de l’Histoire was exhibited at Musée National Eugène-Delacroix.^[10]

In 2023, Mosley had several solo exhibitions including Thaddeus Mosely: Recent Sculpture at Karma Los Angeles and Thaddeus Mosley: Forest at the Nasher Sculpture Center.^[11] Forest was organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art where it was exhibited between October 17, 2021 — March 27, 2022 and curated by Jessica Bell Brown.^[12] The exhibition included five recent sculptures, carved from discarded walnut trees the artist gathered in Pittsburgh neighborhoods.^[11]

His best-known sculptures in Pittsburgh are the 14-foot cedars Phoenix at the corner of Centre Avenue and Dinwiddie in the Hill District and the Mountaintop limestone at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in the Hill District at Herron and Milwaukee Streets.^[3] Other commissions include Three Rivers Bench in 2003 for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center; Legends at the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from December 2003 to March 2004; and an exhibition at the CUE Art Foundation Gallery in New York City in March 2004.^[3]

Another well known work titled Georgia Gate, created in 1975 and owned by the Carnegie Museum of Art, was based on sculptures from a graveyard in Sumner, Georgia that Mosley saw pictures of in Marshall Stearns' book The Story of Jazz.^[4] Living in Pittsburgh, Mosley met many influential musicians such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Tommy Turrentine, the later of whom was a good friend.^[13] The influence of jazz music can be seen in his improvisational carving techniques and the titles of sculptures, such as Tatum Scales.^[14] Made in 2020, the title and ridged elements "likely refers to Art Tatum, whose rapid-fire prowess on the piano was characterized by virtuoso traversals up and down the keyboard."^[14] Other artistic influences include Isamu Noguchi, whom Mosley considers one of the "greatest American sculptors" and African art, with particular interest in the diversity of Western and Central African art traditions.^[13]

• 1997 interview with Mosley
• Mosley's exhibit at the Cue Art Foundation Gallery in NYC