Gate, 1982
Wrought Iron and Hardware, 36" x 50"
Rod Rosebrook was born in Masonville, Colorado, in 1900 and worked as a cattleman and farmer for most of his life. He started collecting old tools and antique wrought iron in the 1950s for his Old Time Museum of ranching and pioneer life. A self-taught artist, Rosebrook learned blacksmithing on cattle drives and began welding pieces from his collection to make fences and gates in the late 1970s. His work was first shown by the Ricco-Maresca Gallery in the 1980s. It is included in the Hemphill Folk Art Collection and has been exhibited at the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. Rosebrook died in 1994 in Redmond, Oregon.
*Excerpted from Tools as Art: The Hechinger Collection, published by Harry N. Abrams Inc. Edited to reflect the artist’s passing