A clip from the San Jose Museum of Art with the artist’s agent talking about Mr. Neri’s work.
The artist was born on April 12, 1930. He has worked with many mediums over his years including painting, printmaking, and sculpture. The artist was born to Mexican parents who left Mexico during the Revolution. They took sanctuary in California and Manuel Neri was born in Sanger, California.
Neri started college at San Francisco City College for electronics, but after taking a ceramics class he switched his major to art, and began studying at California College for the Arts and Crafts and the California School for the Fine Arts. Two famous artists the reader might know about instructed the artist in college, Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff.
Interestingly both Bischoff and Diebenkorn started off as realist painters, both went thru an abstract expressionist era, then both returned to the figure. Both artist’s work is loose but structured.
Neri taught ceramics at the California School for the Fine Arts from 1959 to 1965. The artist then was a professor of art at University California at Davis off and on from 1965 until 1990.
He is included in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. , the Denver Art Museum, the El Paso Museum of Art in Texas, the Whitney Museum in New York City and the Honolulu Museum of Art in Hawaii.
Was married to a figure painter named Joan Brown in the 1960s. He had three children that all became artists. His daughter Rubi Neri became known for her graffiti style using the tag “Reminisce.”
In 2006 won a lifetime achievement award for his work in the field of sculpture.
mediums used: watercolor, gouache, oils, charcoal, ink, and sculpture with bronze and plaster and even uses “junk” such as cardboard or burlap
low price range: for paintings and drawings on paper $3000 bronzes start around $5,000
high price range: paintings and works on paper or canvas, $15,000 bronzes go to $70,000 His record is $289,000 for a marble sculpture!
on line and land based galleries: Robischon Gallery on Wazee St. in Downtown Denver. http://www.robischongallery.com/html/artistresults.asp?artist=20&testing=true Includes sculpture and paintings for sale.
John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, California. http://www.berggruen.com/artists/manuel-neri/#/artists/
The artist uses very bright colors when painting his sculptures. He does this to honor artists that inspired him such as Pablo Picasso, Mariano Marini, as well as Willem De Kooning. He enjoyed the latter’s use of color in expressing himself.
The artist still keeps a residence and studio in Carrera, Italy where he likes to do sculpting with marble.
How about making a loose interpretation of your next figure in a three dimensional medium!
Keep on learning!
D
Diattaart Blog 