Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley, who found international fame in his 90s, is dead

"The log and I decide together what it will become. His pieces were sculptural improvisations, akin to the free-flowing jazz he liked to play in his studio. He would use a piece of chalk to draw rough lines on the wood, but never followed a set plan."

"They should look and feel like they're floating, and the emphasis is up instead of down. The results could seem unbound by gravity. Mr. Mosley would join two or three pieces to form abstract sculptures that rose as high as 10 feet in the air, dwarfing their muscular 5-foot-3 creator."

"Perennially short of money, he sculpted with wood in part because it was so readily available. When he needed stone, he found it in demolished buildings; for metal, he turned to scrapyards. For nearly seven decades, he was a beloved figure in and around Pittsburgh, but remained unknown in art-world capitals like Paris and New York."

Thaddeus Mosley was a self-taught sculptor who transformed discarded wood into abstract sculptures using only a mallet, chisel, and gouge. He collected salvaged Pennsylvania hardwoods from tree trimmers and public works departments, viewing the materials as full of artistic possibility. His creative process resembled jazz improvisation—he would sketch rough chalk lines but never followed predetermined plans, allowing the wood and his intuition to guide the final form. His sculptures, reaching up to 10 feet tall, appeared precariously balanced yet were structurally sound, emphasizing upward movement rather than downward weight. Though celebrated in Pittsburgh and exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Mosley remained largely unknown in major art centers like New York and Paris throughout his nearly seven-decade career.

Read at The Washington Post