Mujer Pegada Series No. 5

Window Series Sculpture I

Mujer Pegada Series No. 5 (1985/2005)
Window Series Sculpture I (1968)
Gift of the Manuel Neri Trust

Manuel Neri (1930 – 2021)
“Manuel Neri was a leading member of the Bay Area Figurative movement along with David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, and Elmer Bischoff. The climate of the Post-War era encouraged bold artistic searches for new expression and Neri led the way in the Bay Area through a sculptural practice rooted in the desire to explore and manipulate material, beginning with cardboard and junk material and later oscillating between plaster, bronze, and marble (hackettmill.com).”

“During the 1990s, Neri focused on the figure in relief, first in a series of small plaster maquettes, and then in an ambitious series of life-sized figural sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble, in which figures seem to emerge from, or into, a flat wall, a spectacular revival of an ancient sculptural form that addresses modern ideas of appearance and disappearance, hiddenness and disclosure. Further, the relief extended his ideas regarding the use of the partial or fragmented form as a means of expressing complex emotional states in figures whose identities are otherwise buried by their fragmented condition (The Trustees of The Manuel Neri Trust).”

The Manuel Neri Trust gifted 48 works by the artist to Langson IMCA, including Mujer Pegada Series No. 5 and Window Series Sculpture I. This significant acquisition will enhance visitors’ understanding of Neri’s body of work and artistic practice, augment IMCA’s holdings of works by notable Bay Area artists, including several of Neri’s contemporaries, and strengthen the museum’s role as a center for the study and appreciation of California Art.

Year acquired: 2019