The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 140

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES

Frey, Viola
American; (b. 1933, Lodi, CA; d. 2004, Oakland, CA)
1958 Graduate Studies, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
1956 BFA California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1952–1953 Stockton Delta College, Stockton, CA

The painter and ceramicist Viola Frey is best known for her oversized and brightly

SELECTED REFERENCES:

colored figures of men and women. At Tulane she worked with notable artists

Clark, Garth, and Cindi

Mark Rothko and George Rickey. By the mid-1960s, Frey relocated to Oakland,

Strauss. Shifting Paradigms

California, where she began her long tenure as an art professor and later the chair

in Contemporary Ceramics:
The Garth Clark & Mark Del

of the ceramics program at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Frey was

Vecchio Collection. New

twice awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1978, 1986) and in

Haven: Yale University Press;

2000 an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, referred to now as the California
College of the Arts (CAA). By the 1980s Frey’s sculptural works—decorated urns,

Houston: The Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, 2012.
Manhart, Marcia, and Tom

bowls, and plates—took on a sense of monumentality. The towering ceramic figures,

Manhart, eds. The Eloquent Object:

overglazed to heighten their expressiveness, reflect the artist’s interest in kitsch, but

The Evolution of American Art

also demonstrate her technical aptitude for clay and her carefree sensibility.

in Craft Media Since 1945. Tulsa:
The Philbrook Museum, 1987.
Wood, Eve. “Northern California
Ceramics: Profiles of Six Artists,
Viola Frey.” American Ceramics
14, no. 4 (2004): 20–21.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF VIOLA FREY WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

Grandmother Figure
Ashton, Dore. “Perceiving the

Perreault, John. “Crafts Is Art:

Clay Figure.” American Craft 41,

Notes on Crafts, On Art, On

no. 2 (April/May 1981): 24–31.

Criticism.“ In The Eloquent

Clark, Garth, and Suzanne
Foley. A Fire for Ceramics:
Contemporary Art from the
Daniel Jacobs and Derek Mason
Collection. Richmond: Hand
Workshop Art Center, 1999.
Friedrich, Maria, and Daniel
Jacobs. A Passionate Vision:
Contemporary Ceramics from the
Daniel Jacobs Collection. Lincoln:
DeCordova Museum, 1984.

13 8

ALSO INCLUDED IN EXHIBITION

Object: The Evolution of American
Art in Craft Media Since 1945,
edited by Marcia Manhart and
Tom Manhart, 188–201. Tulsa: The
Philbrook Museum of Art, 1987.

Artist Mind/Studio
Diptych II
Man and his World