Untitled Family Group

Date1992

Maker Viola Frey American, 1933 - 2004

Label TextViola Frey’s large-scale ceramic figures boldly place both the everyday individual and the world of craft into the realm of monuments. Here, three conventionally dressed, contemporary figures sit atop a classical base, surrounded by the vestiges of art history: an equestrian figure, a female nude, a prone head reminiscent of a Roman imperial colossus, and figures dressed in both Eastern and Western historical garb. Unifying all the figures with her singular expressionistic style, the artist wryly collapses old and new, monumental and mundane, onto equal footing.

Object number95.142

Photo CreditPhoto: Scott Leen

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, June 21 - September 2, 2024.

Credit LineGift of William L. True in honor of Patterson Sims

Dimensions75 x 43 x 29 in. (190.5 x 109.22 x 73.66 cm)

MediumCeramic with paint