Hackberry Wood

Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as a synthetic organic chemist specializing in steroid synthesis. His foray into woodturning began in the year 2000 when his father passed away. Growing up, he was surrounded by woodworking and the associated woodworking tools. In his retirement years, his father became a prolific woodturner. While he never actually taught Acosta to turn, he got a feel for it by observing. Upon his death in 2000, his father had a mostly completed piece on the lathe which Acosta parted off and finished at the bottom. Before that, the last time Acosta had turned wood was eighth grade shop class. Shortly thereafter, he began to turn his pieces and in no time, became addicted. He works mainly with native Texas woods, mesquite being his favorite. In addition to mesquite, he's worked with pecan, mountain laurel, plum, honey locust, cedar elm, hackberry, arizona ash, bois d'arc, peach and an occasional piece of FOG wood. Most of the wood he turns is salvaged from woodpiles or tree trimmings. Acosta finds it particularly challenging to turn pieces of wood that most turners throw in the burn pile. None of Acosta's turned pieces are identical, as no two pieces of wood are the same. “The art of turning is being able to see the bowl or vessel that lies in that spinning chunk of wood.”

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.