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.
|
|

Robert Cremean, Study for Homage to Paul Apostle, 1970. Marble,
35 1/2 x 42 in. Crocker Art Museum, gift of Robert de la Vergne.

Robert Cremean, A Curia, 1963. Graphite and gesso on panels, 80 x 90 in. Crocker Art Museum, gift of Robert de la Vergne. |