Manuel John Neri Jr. (April 12, 1930 – October 18, 2021) was an American sculptor who is recognized for his life-size figurative sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble. In Neri's work with the figure, he conveys an emotional inner state that is revealed through body language and gesture. Since 1965 his studio was in Benicia, California; in 1981 he purchased a studio in Carrara, Italy, for working in marble. Over four decades, beginning in the early 1970s, Neri worked primarily with the same model, Mary Julia Klimenko, creating drawings and sculptures that merge contemporary concerns with Modernist sculptural forms.
Neri taught sculpture and ceramics at California School of Fine Arts from 1959 to 1965, and taught classes in the art department at UC Berkeley in 1963–1964. He was a member of the art department faculty at the University of California, Davis from 1965 to 1990.[3]
Neri created figurative sculptures in plaster, marble, bronze, and clay, their surfaces often sanded, chipped, or painted as a means of directing the gestural thrust.[7] From the late 1970s on he also worked in marble and created numerous figures, torsos, and heads at his studio in Carrara.
He is also noted for his work a draftsman and a collaborator on artists' books. His books include three collaborations with poet Mary Julia Klimenko, and a series of unique books that combine his original drawings with poetry by Pablo Neruda, Federico García Lorca, and W.S. Merwin.[8]
Neri's early works included paintings and mixed-media sculptures based on abstracted figurative or architectural forms.[9] He has received sculpture commissions from the Office of the State Architect, State of California, for the Bateson Building, Sacramento, California (1980-1982); U.S. General Services Administration for the U.S. Courthouse, Portland, Oregon (1987); Laumeier Sculpture Park, Sunset Hills, Missouri (1994); Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, for the Gerdin Building (2003); St. Anne's Church, Seattle, Washington (2003), and others. Neri's work is represented by Hackett Mill Gallery, San Francisco, California; Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado; and Yares Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Palm Springs California, and New York City, New York.
Manuel Neri had several marriages; he was the second husband of painter Joan Brown from 1962 to 1966 (though their relationship and artistic collaboration dated back several years prior to that).[13] He has seven children: Raoul, Laticia, Noel (his son by Joan Brown),[14] Max, Ruby, Julia, and Gus.[15] He died on October 18, 2021, in Sacramento, California, at the age of 91.[1][16]
^Its members included Jay de Feo, Michael McClure, Manuel Neri and Joan Brown. See Rebecca Solnit, ‘Heretical Constellations: Notes on California, 1946–61’, in Sussman, ed., Beat Culture and the New America, 69–122, especially 71.
^Strong, Charles; Whitney Chadwick (1995). Working Together—Joan Brown and Manuel Neri, 1958-1964: March 21-April 29, 1995. Wiegand Gallery, College of Notre Dame.
^Nixon, Bruce. Things That Dream: Contemporary Calligraphic Artists’ Books/Cosas que sueñan: Libros de artistas caligráficos contemporáneos. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2012 (ISBN978-0-911221-48-0).
Cowart, Jack; Amerson, Price (1994). Manuel Neri: A Sculptor's Drawings. Washington, DC: The Corcoran Gallery of Art. ISBN0-88675-041-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Cowart, Jack; Amerson, Price; Beardsley, John; Geldzahler, Henry; Pincus, Robert (1996). Manuel Neri: Early Work 1953–1978. Washington, DC: The Corcoran Gallery of Art. ISBN0-88675-046-6.
Cowart, Jack (2001). Manuel Neri: Paintings and Painted Papers. Washington, DC: The Corcoran Gallery of Art. ISBN0-88675-064-4.
Geldzahler, Henry (1993). Manuel Neri: Sculpture, Painted and Unpainted. Bridgehampton, NY: Dia Center for the Arts. ASINB000L9JN5I. OCLC30866519.
Guenther, Bruce (1994). The Essential Gesture. Newport Beach, CA: Newport Harbor Art Museum. ISBN0-917493-21-4.
Herskovic, Marika (2009). Abstract and Figurative Expressionism: Style is Timely Art is Timeless. New York School Press. pp. 180–183. ISBN978-0-9677994-2-1.
Jones, Caroline A. (1989). Bay Area Figurative Art: 1950–1965. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN0-520-06842-4.
Neubert, George (1976). Manuel Neri, Sculptor. Oakland, CA: The Oakland Museum. LCCN76-40536. OCLC7614261.
Nixon, Bruce (2012). Things That Dream: Contemporary Calligraphic Artists' Books/Cosas que sueñan: Libros de artistas caligráficos contemporáneos (in English and Spanish). Stanford, CA: Stanford University. ISBN978-0-911221-48-0.
Nixon, Bruce (2005). Manuel Neri: Painted Bronzes and Plasters. San Francisco, CA: Hackett Freedman Gallery. ISBN1-933399-00-7.
Nixon, Bruce (2006). Manuel Neri: The Figure in Relief. Hamilton, NJ; Portland, OR; San Jose, CA: Grounds for Sculpture; Portland Art Museum; San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, in association with Hudson Hills Press. ISBN1-883124-26-3.
Nixon, Bruce (2017). Manuel Neri: Matters of Form & Construction. Ames and Clarinda, Iowa: Iowa State University Museums and Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum.
Nixon, Bruce (2017). Manuel Neri & The Assertion of Modern Figurative Sculpture. Stanford, CA: Anderson Collection/Stanford University Press. ISBN978-1-5036-0548-0.
Paz, Octavio; Beardsley, John; Livingston, Jane (1987). Hispanic Art in the United States. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN0-89659-688-5.
Plagens, Peter (1974). Sunshine Muse. New York: Praeger Publishers. ISBN0-520-22392-6.