On 16 July 1967, the New York Times announced in its pages: South Hadley, Massachusetts, 15 July, Henry Rox, former Mount Holyoke College professor and sculptor who is perhaps best known for the peculiar figures he created from fruit and vegetables, died yesterday at his home. He was 69 years old.
I had no idea he existed until one day digging through the internet I found a picture of an onion lady weeping. How beautiful she was! Immediately afterwards I discovered bananas playing jazz and also peanuts bathing in a bathtub. Who? How? Why? When? These were the questions I needed answers to. After all, I am a fan of Arcimboldo and his portraits of Rudolf II. I also happened to glue my eyes to a lemon, for example. The figures made of fruit and vegetables delighted me. I started looking for them. I found the creator! Henry Rox! Born in Berlin. However, there is not much information about him on the web. After a while, I discovered that there is one publishing house and a gallery in Salzburg which is planning to publish a book of his works and to do the exhibition of his works. Without thinking for long, I wrote to FOTOHOF, the book was not yet on the market, but as soon as it appeared at the beginning of December, it came into my hands. And it is a beautiful thing. It was at the end of 2020.
I am coming back to this book now (march 2025) because it has reached me anew. And I mean that literally. As a result of the flooding of my flat, a large part of my precious book collection was affected. Also this wonderful publication. Fortunately, it is still available on the publisher’s website. I am enjoying it again!
You know those children’s books that have thick pages, the kind made of cardboard so they don’t get bent and are easy to turn? This is also the case here. Who says books in this form can only be for the youngest? Nobody! This is incredibly fitting for the content presented here, as the author’s photographs are the most important thing. Instead, I rejoice like a child every time I look through this publication. And there is no superfluous text here! The biographical sketch with the essay is a separate booklet added to the book. A great idea. Interestingly, in the prologue of the publication we read a story similar to mine. Here Wolfgang Vollmer describes how it happened that the book was published. He found a picture of a carrot elephant on the Internet and wanted to know more about its author. Just like in the case of me and Mrs Onion! Vollmer started to collect Rox’s photographs, books, visited archives (e.g. in Berlin or South Hadley) and in this way found out more and more. Thanks to this work, I am now able to deepen my knowledge. Thanks to this work, a beautiful thing comes into the hands of us all. Thanks to this work, the life and work of two artists (Henry and his wife Lotta) will not be forgotten. This is the first publication that deals with these artists. Thanks to it, they will not be forgotten.
Henry Rox was born in Berlin in 1899 as Heinrich Rosenberg. He took part in the First World War and from 1920 studied art history, sculpture and photography in the German capital. In 1927, he married Charlotta Fleck. Because of their Jewish roots, to avoid danger, they moved to London in 1934, where they changed their name. From then on, they lived as Henry and Lotta Rox. It was in England that the artist began to add eyes to fruit and vegetables and create figurines. In 1938, they emigrated to the United States. There, from 1939, Henry Rox worked as a lecturer in sculpture and art history at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley. In 1948 the couple were granted American citizenship. In 1954 Henry Rox was awarded a professorship, followed by a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel to Europe. He died on 14 July 1967 in South Hadley. His death was reported by the New York Times, among others.
How did Professor Henry Rox treat his fruit and vegetable sculptures? Were they entertainment? They certainly embodied his sense of humour. And, after all, they were not just figures, but whole created worlds, scenes that he then intricately photographed. How do you classify them? How to approach them? After all, photographers also analyse Rox’s works. Or are they just still lifes? There is no consensus on this, however. We certainly sense here a desire to play, an extraordinary creativity and a temptation to anthropomorphise. This is a wonderful mix of experimental photography, documentary photography, the world of advertising, perhaps some will say with a smile: this is food porn! And how well thought out! Nothing here seems random or spontaneous. On the contrary, we get the sense that the scenes have been constructed with great care. They are well lit, with beautiful colours. But it is well known that fruit and vegetables quickly lose their freshness, so they had to be created with energy and in a short space of time. And it is a delicate matter. It needs to be approached with sensitivity. It is wonderful to see it come alive! And I think I will always see the head in an apple.
Do you want to buy a book? Do not hesitate! Something beautiful and wonderful will end up in your hands! Something that is an extraordinary tribute to the creator of extraordinary-ordinary sculptures. And who knows, maybe you too will start making sweet pigs out of bananas and a beautiful lady onion will become a permanent guest in your kitchen?
The Book is a Winner of the German Photo Book Prize 2021/22 in Bronze in the category “Conceptual-artistic photo book” ! I love it!
