FLANNAGAN, JOHN BERNARD

born April 7, 1895, Fargo, N.D., U.S. died Jan. 6, 1942, New York, N.Y. American sculptor notable for his small, primitivistic sculptures of animals, birds, fish, and birth themes. Trained as a painter at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Flannagan was encouraged by Arthur B. Davies to take up wood carving, and for five years he worked almost exclusively in this medium. While living in upper New York state, he first became attracted to the natural beauty of fieldstone, and he worked for many years in this medium, seeking images that seemed to have evolved from nature rather than from the sculptor's hand. Flannagan defined his sculpture as a species of occult fossil and dredged the subconscious for inspiration. The traumatic process of becoming was Flannagan's most effective poetic theme; it informed his major workse.g., Triumph of the Egg (1937 and 1941) and perhaps even the tumid Dragon Motif (1933). The spirit of the inert material seems to emerge from these works and mingle with the impressions made by the carver. In both formal and philosophical ways, Flannagan was similar to the artists of ancient India. Shortly before he committed suicide, Flannagan had begun to work in wrought bronze.