Cremean Gift Transforms the Crocker's Contemporary Sculpture Collection

The Crocker recently received a career-spanning collection of sculptures by Robert Cremean. This substantial gift, made by the artist’s partner, Robert de la Vergne, includes works in wood, bronze and marble, as well as paintings,
drawings, ceramics and prints representing the artist’s production at defining moments in his 50-year career. The earliest pieces date from 1952, but the artist’s two most recent–and elaborate–installations are also included. Heroic in scale and involving numerous two- and three-dimensional components, the carved and painted sculptural elements are richly layered in color, prose and
content.

Long considered one of California’s most significant sculptors, Cremean and his work have largely remained outside the mainstream. Fellow sculptor George Herms recently declared Cremean to be a very important artist who has yet to receive his due. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Cremean studied at Alfred University in the early 1950s and later received a Masters of Fine Arts in 1956 from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1954 and represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1968.

Cremean, who began his career working in clay, has since become most recognized for his creations in wood. He embraced the human figure early on in his work, doing so at the same time as Bay Area Figurative painters. Over
time, the figure has been compartmentalized, bound and even constricted, now multiplied into groupings that evoke narrative. His recent figural pieces address universal themes of religion, man’s inhumanity towards man,
war, genocide and bigotry, as well as profoundly personal recollections of childhood, an artistic life and aging.

Additionally, the collection includes works by artists Cremean has known and befriended. It also comes with an endowment for the acquisition, care, conservation, storage, publication, scholarship and exhibition of Robert
Cremean’s work.