The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 134

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES

Brady, Robert
American; (b. 1946, Reno, NV; lives in Benicia, CA)
1975 MFA University of California, Davis, CA
1969 BFA California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco, CA

Brady began his career as a potter influenced by pre-Columbian art, which he first

SELECTED REFERENCES:

encountered as an undergraduate during a summer program in Mexico. Brady

Lippard, Lucy R. “Give and

completed his MFA under the direction of Robert Arneson, William Wiley, and

Takeout: Toward a Cross-Cultural

Roy De Forest. In the 1970s, Brady established himself as an important figurative

Consciousness.” In The Eloquent
Object: The Evolution of American

ceramicist in the pioneering art scene of the San Francisco Bay Area. Much

Art in Craft Media Since 1945,

of Brady’s work features a directness of form. His signature masks and totemic

edited by Marcia Manhart and

primordial beings possess an archetypal quality that eschews specific markers of
origin or identity. In the mid-1980s, Brady turned to wood as a sculptural material

Tom Manhart, 203–227. Tulsa:
The Philbrook Museum, 1987.
McCready, Karen. Twenty Artists:

with which to build stalky and elongated figurative totems that were difficult to

Contemporary American Ceramics.

execute in clay. Brady has been on the faculty of the California State University

Newport Beach, CA: Newport

at Sacramento since 1975 and was the subject of the touring show Robert Brady:
Sculpture 1989–2005 organized by the Palo Alto Art Center in 2006.

Harbor Art Museum, 1985.
White, Cheryl. “Robert Brady:
Masked Gods.” American
Craft (December/January
1989–90): 30–37.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT BRADY WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

Ancestor

Untitled Mask (1982)

Brady, Robert. Robert Brady: A

Lippard, Lucy R. “Give and

Survey Exhibition. Sacramento:

Takeout: Toward a Cross-Cultural

Crocker Art Museum, 1989.

Consciousness.“ In The Eloquent

McCready, Karen. Twenty
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