Sculptor John Rhoden is best known for his monumental public sculptures in New York, including works on the exteriors of the Harlem, Metropolitan, and Bellevue hospitals in Manhattan. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Rhoden attended Talladega College before moving to New York in 1938. After serving in the Army during World War II, he studied art at Columbia University with William Zorach. In the early 1950s, Rhoden was a Fulbright Fellow and received the Prix de Rome Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Later that decade he toured the world with his sculptures under the auspices of the Department of State. Rhoden received many other honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and commissions, and exhibited at major museums around the United States and internationally. The Delaware Art Museum was among the first museums in the United States to purchase his work for its permanent collection.
