Skip to content

MANUEL Neri

Manuel Neri - Artists - Yares Art

The artist ca. 1982

                                                                                                                                        Known for his painterly figurative sculpture, Manuel Neri has remained devoted to representing the human form, despite the dominance of abstraction in the art world during the postwar years, when he started out. Born in 1930 in Sanger, California, near Fresno, Neri spent most of his childhood in Southern California. At San Francisco City College he developed an interest in ceramics while taking a course taught by Peter Voulkos, and it led him to enroll at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1950, where he studied under Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff.

Soon Neri found the medium of pottery and ceramics too confining. He began to experiment with plaster and various supports, beginning with random detritus from his studio, such as cardboard and wire. Taking the human form as a “blank canvas,” Neri from the late 1950s on devoted himself almost exclusively to his signature life-size plaster sculptures. He came to be recognized as a prominent member of the second-generation Bay Area Figurative movement, and to this day he remains active in the San Francisco art scene, while also maintaining a studio in Italy. Neri has held several teaching positions, including at his alma mater, the California School of Fine Arts, as well as the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Davis.

Manuel Neri - Artists - Yares Art

La Palestra No. 6

2001/16

Bronze with Aborada Patina

32 x 21 x 44 inches

81.3 x 53.3 x 111.8cm

Edition 4 of 4

 

Recent exhibitions of his work include Manuel Neri: Assertion of the Figure at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University in 2018 and Manuel Neri: The Human Figure in Plaster and on Paper at the Yale University Art Gallery in 2019. Neri has received many awards and fellowships, including the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Bay Area Treasure Award, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. His work has been acquired by numerous major institutions, including by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and the Art Institute of Chicago. The artist maintains studios in northern California and Carrara, Italy

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Rossa

1982

Bronze, oil based pigments

15.50 x 24 x 68 inches

39.4 x 61 x 172.7cm

Rossa

1982

Bronze, oil based pigments

15.50 x 24 x 68 inches

39.4 x 61 x 172.7cm

Inquire
Catun No. 2

1986

Bronze with Aborada Patina

67 x 18 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches

170.2 x 46.4 x 33.7cm

Edition 3 of 4

Catun No. 2

1986

Bronze with Aborada Patina

67 x 18 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches

170.2 x 46.4 x 33.7cm

Edition 3 of 4

Inquire
Prietas Series

1993/2000

Bronze, patina with oil-based pigments

68 x 19 x 15 inches

172.7 x 48.3 x 38.1cm

Prietas Series

1993/2000

Bronze, patina with oil-based pigments

68 x 19 x 15 inches

172.7 x 48.3 x 38.1cm

Inquire
La Palestra Drawing No. 2

1988

Oil-based pigments, charcoal on paper

30 1/8 x 40 inches

76.5 x 101.6cm

La Palestra Drawing No. 2

1988

Oil-based pigments, charcoal on paper

30 1/8 x 40 inches

76.5 x 101.6cm

Inquire
Posturas Study No. 22

1984

Oil-based pigments, ink on paper

12 1/8  x 9 3/16 inches

30.8 x 23.3cm

Posturas Study No. 22

1984

Oil-based pigments, ink on paper

12 1/8  x 9 3/16 inches

30.8 x 23.3cm

Inquire
Rossa

1982

Bronze, oil based pigments

15.50 x 24 x 68 inches

39.4 x 61 x 172.7cm

Rossa

1982

Bronze, oil based pigments

15.50 x 24 x 68 inches

39.4 x 61 x 172.7cm

Catun No. 2

1986

Bronze with Aborada Patina

67 x 18 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches

170.2 x 46.4 x 33.7cm

Edition 3 of 4

Catun No. 2

1986

Bronze with Aborada Patina

67 x 18 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches

170.2 x 46.4 x 33.7cm

Edition 3 of 4

Prietas Series

1993/2000

Bronze, patina with oil-based pigments

68 x 19 x 15 inches

172.7 x 48.3 x 38.1cm

Prietas Series

1993/2000

Bronze, patina with oil-based pigments

68 x 19 x 15 inches

172.7 x 48.3 x 38.1cm

La Palestra Drawing No. 2

1988

Oil-based pigments, charcoal on paper

30 1/8 x 40 inches

76.5 x 101.6cm

La Palestra Drawing No. 2

1988

Oil-based pigments, charcoal on paper

30 1/8 x 40 inches

76.5 x 101.6cm

Posturas Study No. 22

1984

Oil-based pigments, ink on paper

12 1/8  x 9 3/16 inches

30.8 x 23.3cm

Posturas Study No. 22

1984

Oil-based pigments, ink on paper

12 1/8  x 9 3/16 inches

30.8 x 23.3cm

Back To Top