VIOLA FREY
1933 - 2004 |
Viola
Frey was born in Lodi, California in 1933.
She received her B.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts in
Oakland and her M.F.A. from Tulane University, New Orleans.
She has twice received an Artist's Fellowship Grant from the National Endowment
for the Arts, and the Arts Commission of San Francisco has conferred on
her an Award of Honor for Sculpture.
VIOLA FREY EXHIBITION 2004 - 2005
VIOLA FREY 2002 EXHIBITION
VIOLA FREY NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY
VIOLA FREY's Biography |
Viola
Frey, QUESTIONING WOMAN, 1999
ceramic, 89 x 27 x 23 inches |
Viola Frey, GATEWAY COLUMNS,
1999
ceramic, two parts 112 x 35 x 35 inches each
|
Viola Frey, GATEWAY COLUMNS,
1999
ceramic, two parts 112 x 35 x 35 inches each
|
| The
bench form is a relatively new form for Viola Frey: the circle echoing the
shape of her plates or heraldic tondos, a constant part of her vocabulary
since the 1960s. Viola Frey views her benches as three-dimensional tableaux
to explore some of her favorite themes in glaze. Among her primary themes
are: grandmothers, great-grandmothers, spirals, figurines, horses, faces,
monsters, artist, studio, mind, world, age, beauty and ugliness. In these
benches Viola Frey visits many of these themes and displays her deep and
profound love of the human figure. Above all, she is a figurative artist,
the joy with which she paints figures, faces, profiles, eyes, hands and
limbs is undeniable. She applies her energetic, vigorous color and drawing
line to the benches as she does in her works on paper. |
Viola Frey,
WORLD CIVILIZATION BENCH III, 1996,
ceramic, 18 x 68 x 87 inches |
| Known
for her larger-than-life monumental ceramic figures of men in power suits
and women either clothed, inspired by the fashions of the 1950s, or dressed
in pink in their birthday suits. Frey also delights in making smaller ceramic
sculptures--sometimes hand-built, at other times slip-cast, as well as drawings.
In her smaller groupings, Frey's love of the human figure is evident, men
in blue power suits are juxtaposed with figurines, a cornucopia of cascading
figures combines the most unlikely selection of objects, shapes and figurines
for the artist, the abstractions of contemporary society, combined with
images that have become visual "watchwords" of her vocabulary.
In the artist's hands the compilation comes alive as an animated, active,
colorful tableau of life. |
Viola Frey,
WOMAN AND SMALL WORLD, 1999,
ceramic, 72 x 75 x 55 inches |
| Above
all, Frey is a figurative artist who delights in painting or drawing figures,
faces, profiles, eyes, hands, limbs. She applies her energetic, vigorous
color and drawing line to the form of the human figure which she hand builds
over a period of approximately one year. Her women represent everywoman,
her men everyman. The monumentality of scale in the figures brings us back
to the sensation of childhood when adults were towering pillars in the forest
of humanity. |
Viola Frey,
FIGURES RUNNING OFF URN, 1999, ceramic, 61 x 81 inches |
Viola Frey, MASK OF TRAGEDY SERIES #1, 1998,
ceramic, 24 inches in diameter |
Viola Frey,
MASK OF TRAGEDY SERIES #3, 1998,
ceramic, 24 inches in diameter
|
Viola Frey, WORLD MAN, 1986
ceramic, 48 x 19 x 18 inches |
Viola Frey, WORLD NUDE AND ANGEL, 1987
ceramic, 34 x 20 x 13 inches |
