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Viola Frey

Viola Frey was one of the renowned American artists born in 1933 in California. After

high school, she joined Stockton College of Arts and Crafts, California, where she received a

Bachelor in Fine Arts (BFA). When in college, she got to study ceramics alongside other artists

such as Charles Fiske. She got enrolled at Tulane University to study her Masters in Fine Arts

(MFA). However, she decided to move to the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New York where

she joined Katherine Choy. Her intentions of moving were to advance her practical skills in

ceramic arts. The Clay Art Center was one of the places where she laid a strong foundation of

exploring ceramics as a medium to achieve artistry without facing most of the challenges

associated with craft (Archives of American Art).

Viola’s Artwork

Despite all the educational advances, Viola had already started artwork at a young age of 11

years after she was introduced to a drawing show by Henri Matisse. At this age, she submitted a

rendition of a drawing of Matisse during an exhibition at the Sacramento Public Library that got

accepted (Clark, 1987). Over the course of her career, she produced an impressive body of

artwork, such as drawings, paintings, ceramic and bronze sculptures, glass mediums,

photography, and wallpapers. She was highly attracted to the potential of clay and determined to

crack the barriers that existed between fine art and craft (Fragomeni, 2010).
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In the 1960s, she returned to San Francisco. During this time, clay works and figurative

artistry were in the vanguard. Primarily, she produced ceramic sculptures, functional pottery, and

wall plates that focused on figural compositions, landscapes, and still-life (Matt, 2015). Her

decision to pursue her career as an artist captures the major attributes that identified the art made

in the West Coast region during the last half of the 21st century. Examples of these attributes

include sensuous physicality, daily ordinariness, and subterranean sophistication among others

(Matt, 2015).

The Uniqueness of Viola’s Art

The subject matter of her art structures accrues meaning through concentration and attention. The

perfection and the imperfection drew from the art. For instance, bold shades of dark color bring

out the essence of struggle whereas the brighter shade of the color is a symbol of hope, artistic

mastery, perfect beauty of art, and an organic flow of the shades of images (Clark, 1987). Frey

designed monumental ceramics figures of men dressed in power-suits and women who were

dressed and inspired by the 1950s fashion. These monuments were termed as larger than life. She

designed men fallen, seated, walking, and standing. This was a means to expose their

vulnerabilities in their visages and suits as a means to address the issue of gender dynamics and

power within the society (Clark, 1987). However, she also made small ceramics as a means to

portray her diversity in artwork that constituted her visual vocabulary. Most of the layers she

used were asymmetric in nature revealing a unique depth of the focal point in the art (Clark,

1987).

Frey ideology was, "the only way to establish oneself as an artist was to show that as an

artist she was multifaceted and that she could work in other media. So no one could put her in a

box" (Fragomeni, 2010). A cursory look at her life reveals that she was driven by an insatiable
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need to create and develop art. She was able to effectively carry out her work due to her two

principles; to create art and to survive. These two principles were inseparable in her view. In

addition, Frey was not only an art creator but also one of its consumers in that she lived with it in

a manner that was fully engaging (Matt, 2015).

In addition to artwork, Frey was a passionate collector. She used to collect knick-knacks

and figurines, which she used as inspirations for the junk sculptures and ‘bricolages.’ Through

the collection, she was able to develop her personal iconography because she curated and

produced her source materials. These collections served as creative wellsprings in her artistic

career and aided in her exploration of gender dynamics and power (Matt, 2015).

Viola’s Accomplishments and Legacy

Before her death in 2004, Frey participated in annual exhibitions and traveled to many places to

broaden her art skills and practices. She has received two Art National Endowments fellowships

and attained an honorary doctorate from CCAC (Clark, 1987). Her achievements include guiding

the designing and building of the Noni Eccles Treadwell Ceramic Arts Center at CCAC Oakland

University, co-founder of the Artist’ Legacy Foundation. Presently, her work is held in more

than seventy public collections.

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Work Cited

Archives of American Art. (Nd). Oral history interview with Viola Frey, 1995 Feb. 27-June 19 |

Archives of American Art. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-viola-frey-12554

Clark, G. (1987). American ceramics: 1876 to the present. Abbeville Press.

Fragomeni, D. (2010). The evolution of exhibit labels. Faculty of Information Quarterly, 2(1).

Matt Moores. (2015). Viola Frey at Nancy Hoffman Gallery. Retrieved from

http://www.nancyhoffmangallery.com/artist/other_images/41/Viola-Frey