Memorial for Barney Hodes

Please join us Saturday, March 9 to celebrate the life and art of League Instructor Barney Hodes (1943 – 2023). Memorial speeches will take place between 1 – 2 PM.

Hodes first studied at the League in 1962. From 1974 to 1980 he was chairman of the sculpture department at the Brooklyn Museum of Art School. In 1982, together with the painter Francis Cunningham, he founded The New Brooklyn School of Life Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, which subsequently became known as The New York Academy of Art.⁠

⁠⁠Above all, Hodes was a teacher. Beginning in 1986 he taught at the League for over thirty years, during which time he trained and mentored generations of artists. His teaching method focused on a combination of life-size work and anatomical function.Hodes embodied the ideals of the the League — he was inviting to students of any skill level to his classes.⁠ ⁠⁠New students, finding themselves immersed in a daunting world of three-dimensions, received a solid base from Hodes. Experienced sculptors returned to his class for refinement and artistic freedom. ⁠All of his students were able to discover and create their own voices through his centered approach to the medium and his understated, gregarious nature.⁠

⁠He will be missed by the League community.⁠