R E V IE W E D
“Bigger, Better, More,” the first retrospec-
tive since 1981 of Viola Frey’s work, isn’t
actually very big. An exercise in thoughtful
distillation, it manages to spotlight Frey’s
recurring themes, passionate exploration
of color and increasingly bold use of scale
with just 22 well-chosen pieces. Making the
selections must have been wrenching. Frey
was phenomenally productive: although
her sculpture sold consistently, her 15,000-
square-foot warehouse/studio was still
crammed with work when she died in 2004.
Frey, of course, is best known for her
brilliantly colored, monumental ceramic
figures. Startlingly fresh when they emerged
in the early 1980s, these figures have become
icons of 20th-century ceramics, so familiar
that it’s easy to take them for granted. It’s
a revelation to step back and see them in a
fuller context. At the Racine Art Museum,
the most iconic works weren’t even visible
from the first gallery, which was dominated
by a raucous row of smaller, densely com-
posed sculptures dating from 1969 to 1980.
It was thrilling to round the corner and
sense the scale ramping up, as the life-size
Mrs. National Geographic,
1977-78, and
Dou-
ble Self,
1978, gave way to the imposing
Dou-
ble Grandmothers with Black and H'hite Dress-
es,
1982, and two enormous men in power
suits. The exhibition is fortified by some of
Frey’s most evocative paintings and pastels
and a handful of her luscious, inscrutable
plates. Frey established her national reputa-
tion as a sculptor, but her paintings and
works on paper are like windows into the
sculptures’ world, revealing their chaotic
relationships and emotional lives. Her
plates and earlier sculptures carry' much of
the same thematic freight, creating a dynam-
ic call and response around the gallery.
What impressed me most, however—I’m
embarrassed I hadn’t fully grasped it before—
was Frey’s extraordinary range. With her
strong work ethic, well-honed technique
and deep grounding in art history, archaeol-
ogy, color theory, social politics and pop
culture, she must have been an unstoppable
force in the studio. She was a brash, confi-
dent draftsman, with the chops for every-
thing from delicate impressionistic dabs
to moody, slashing silhouettes, funky brush-
work and a hopped-up wiggly line that riffs
on 18th-century' painted porcelain. Her glaze
surfaces run the gamut from dusty matte
to bright drippy gloss and the dry sheen of
Egyptian paste. As her figurative pieces
034 american craft dec/jan io
Bigger, Better,
More: The Art
of Viola Frey
By'Jody Clowes
Racine Art Museum
Apr. 24 - Aug. 16, 2009
Racine, WI
ramart.org
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Photo Michael Trope a, courtesy of Artists’ Legacy Foundation.
