Original Viola Frey Elephant Musician Playing Trunk like a Viola or Violin Instrument Bow Vintage Whimsical 60’s Glazed Earthenware Original Vintage California Contemporary American Modern Art Studio Ceramic Pottery

Viola Frey, an American painter and sculptor born in 1933 and raised in Lodi, CA, hailed from a family involved in cultivating Zinfandel grapes. During her youth, she frequently perused art books at the local library, creating watercolor images and depicting acquaintances in drawings and oil paintings, which she sold for 25 cents. At the age of 11, Frey gained recognition at a drawing show in Sacramento for her rendition of a Henri Matisse drawing, showcasing her early admiration for the Fauvism movement leader.

After high school, she pursued higher education at Stockton College in California and later earned a BFA in Fine Arts from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1956. Two years after, Frey obtained her MFA in Fine Arts from Tulane University in New Orleans, studying under Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko and sculptor George Rickey.

Frey's artistic focus was primarily on ceramics, where she applied abstract painterly glazes and incorporated knickknacks into molds, contributing a distinctive touch to Modern Art. In the early 1960s, while working as a billing clerk at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY, Frey continued her sculpting and painting. She returned to California in the mid-1960s, teaching ceramic arts at the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Her artworks, displayed in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, found homes in prestigious institutions like the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio, and the Museum of Ceramic Art in Japan. Notable collections include "Viola Frey: Plates 1968–1994" and "Larger than Life: Ceramic Figures by Viola Frey," featuring vibrant, cartoonish sculptures of towering men and women. Frey's later works include "Focus on the Figure" and "Relationships/Interrelationships." She passed away at the age of 70 in her Oakland, CA home.

Timeline:

• 1933: Born in Lodi, CA
• 1956: BFA, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
• 1958: MFA, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
• 2004: Died in Oakland, CA

Notable Awards:

• NEA, Artist's Fellowship
• NEA, Artist's Fellowship Grant in Sculpture
• Awards of Honor, Sculpture, Arts Commission of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Selected Exhibitions:

• 2010: Legacy in Paint and Clay, Sylvia White Gallery
• 1999: Nancy Hoffman Gallery New York, NY
• 1998: Rena Bransten Gallery San Francisco, CA
• 1997: Nancy Hoffman: A Perspective on Art, Flanders Contemporary Art Minneapolis, MN
• 1994–1996: Viola Frey: Plates, Traveling Exhibition Ohio, New York, Washington, Texas

Viola Frey

(1933-2004)

Sculpture of an Elephant Musician playing the trunk with a bow, like it is a violin/viola.

Multicolor glaze on original earthenware whimsical ceramic sculpture.

Signed, V, ("F' is faded), and dated either '60 or '66 on the top of the right foot, in black, under the glaze; (the initials are also engraved onto the bottom of the left foot; facing camera on the right).

7.9" tall, 4.5 at the widest

Excellent original condition

Contact Us:

pacificfineart@gmail.com

424-259-3290