Beatrice Wood (American, 1893–1998) was a painter, draughtsman, and sculptor best known for her luster-glazed ceramic works. Born in New York to a well-to-do family, Wood studied acting at the Comédie Française and painting at the Académie Julian. The outbreak of World War I necessitated her return to the United States. She would soon become friends with Marcel Duchamp and Henri Roche, with whom she founded the prominent Dadaist magazine Blind Man; she was also part of a circle of artists and writers who frequented the home of the Modern Art collectors Louise and Walter Arensberg. Wood’s liaisons with Duchamp, writer Roche, and others associated with the avante-garde Dada movement of the early 20th century, earned her the appellation "Mama of Dada."

After a brief and unhappy marriage, Wood moved to Ojai, CA. There, she began to learn about ceramics, eventually opening her own studio and expanding her practice from lusterware, vessels, and tableware to Figurative sculptures executed in a self-consciously naïve style.

At age 100, she became the subject of a documentary called Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada, which gave viewers a first-hand look at the legendary artist, who was as famous for her rebellious and insolent wit as she was for her ceramics. Wood was also the basis for the role of 101-year-old Rose in the 1997 film Titanic.

Throughout her life, Wood challenged the relevance of age, saying often that "chocolate and young men" were the keys to her longevity. In the last few years of her life, neither her failing health nor her failing hearing were enough to keep her from entertaining guests at her Topa Topa mountain studio and home.

Today, her work is represented in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among many others.