The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 27

for pottery. Lucero introduces a very specific kind of theater,
the circus. Imagine him as the ringmaster, resplendent in
a scarlet and white jacket with gold trim, wearing a large
top hat, with a twirled moustache, cracking the whip, and
conjuring humor and fascination as he introduces act after
act. At times he commands his art to play the clown, but
always there is a sense of ceramic spectacle. While the
color may seem easy and friendly, a touch of Machiavelli
is an essential part of magnetism in the ring. To give this
ringmaster his full complexity one imagines the caravan
that is his home filled with a secret collection of priceless
archeological finds. Put all together, that gives us Lucero.
Lucero’s section of the exhibition begins with Ram Figure

Michael Lucero, Cabbage's Revenge, 1978.

(circa 1975), a solid, humanoid ram. The way in which
the figure is made is conventional: carving and applying

The archeology of ceramics links to a thread that runs

clay. It is how clay figures have been made for eons.

through much of Lucero’s work. Shards are often the

Within a year of making Ram Figure, Lucero turned

only material remains that an early culture leaves behind.

that convention upside down with a new approach

Archeologists carefully reassemble them into full pots when

to figuration, the “shard figure,” precociously leaving

possible and organize them into strata that define cultural

college with his own distinct language as a sculptor.

values and taste. These figures also tie clay to universal

In the canon of ceramic sculpture, the shard figures
have an important place as some of the most inventive
and challenging work of their time. The shard figures

creation myths and the same metaphors in the Bible.
In essence Lucero became the epitome of Claude LéviStrauss’ protagonist in his book The Jealous Potter (1988).

are built of hundreds of wired, painted, ceramic shards,

Looking from Untitled (Hanging Ram) (1976) to Untitled

and surmounted with representations of an actual head.

(Snow-Capped Mountains) (1982) we see a progressive

Other later figures feature pots serving as heads (pot

opening up of the art in a literal sense. Hanging Ram

heads). With these figures Lucero achieved three things:

is densely hung with shards, weighty and almost

he invented a free form way of assembling figures, he

suffocating. The same is true of Untitled (Devil) (1977),

was able to make work larger than the kiln, and by

Untitled (Jesus Figure) (1977), and Cabbage’s Revenge

using shards, he gave ceramics a conceptual purpose.

(1978), the latter having the appearance of an early 1960s

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