Description:

Viola Frey
American, 1933-2004
Tree
Oil on canvas, signed lower right
Impressionistic and sgraffito-work rendering of a tree against a cold backdrop, framed.

In 1953 Viola Frey receives a scholarship to study at California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) in Oakland, California. Frey studies painting under Richard Diebenkorn, and takes classes in ceramics under Vernon Coykendall and Charles Fiske.

1955 Receives undergraduate degree in painting, CCAC, Oakland, California.

1955-57 Studies graduate coursework in painting at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. Frey studies under George Rickey, Katherine Choy, and visiting artist Mark Rothko.

1957 Moves to Port Chester, New York, to work at the Clay Art Center with founder Katherine Choy. Frey supplements her income by working at New York's Museum of Modern Art in the billing department of the business office.

1960 Moves to 495 Francisco Street #D in San Francisco, California. Frey gets a job at Macy's Department Store in the accounting department and continues to work there until 1970.

1961 Award winner, California Crafts II, Creative Arts League of Sacramento, California.

1963 E.B. Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento is gifted Noah's Ark, stoneware, which marks the first museum to collect Frey artwork. Award winner for Covered Jar, reduction-fired ceramic, Stone Forms: Association of San Francisco Potters 12th Exhibition, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco.

1964 Becomes a part-time Artist Potter in Residence, marking the beginning of her career at CCAC. Purchase award for "Untitled," stoneware vase, San Francisco Art Festival.

1965 Purchases a Victorian house at 1335 Divisadero in San Francisco and converts the basement into her first studio. Begins teaching a color and light class in the Painting Department at CCAC.

1967 Becomes a visiting Assistant Professor in Advanced Ceramics for a summer course at Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Award winner for "Landscape #2," oil on canvas, James D. Phelan Award.

1968 Award winner for Untitled (Brown Rim Plate with Fruit), ceramic with glazes, Media '68, Walnut Creek Civic Arts Gallery, Walnut Creek, California.

1970 Artist residency at San Joaquin Delta College (formerly Stockton Delta College) in Stockton, California. Purchase award for Pink Lady and Spotted Pig, ceramic with glazes, San Francisco Art Festival.

1971 Becomes a full-time assistant professor in Ceramics Department at CCAC.Award winner for Flying Duck, hand-built earthenware with glazes and luster, Ceramic Statement 1971, Association of San Francisco Potters, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco.

1973 The Noni Eccles Treadwell Ceramic Arts Center opens at California College of Arts and Crafts where Frey is integral in its planning.

1975 Moves to 663 Oakland Avenue in Oakland and begins working on larger ceramic sculptures outdoors in order to study the light and color of her artworks.

1976 Casts her first series of bronze sculptures at the Walla Walla Foundry in Walla Walla, Washington.


1978 Artist residency at Purdue University CA 5 Ceramic Studio, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Grant recipient, $7,500 Craftsmen's Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts.

1979 Nominee for annual Artist Award, Oakland Museum, California. Panelist for The Ceramics Symposium 1979 at the Institute for Ceramic History, Los Angeles. Award nominee for the annual Artist Award, presented by The Oakland Museum, California.

1980 Panelist for the annual National Council for the Ceramic Arts conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1981 Frey's first solo exhibition and retrospective is launched by the Creative Arts League of Sacramento and travels to multiple venues around the country. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts purchases Double Grandmother, ceramic with glazes, which marks Frey's first major museum purchase. Creative Arts League of Sacramento launches Frey's first traveling solo exhibition and retrospective.

1982 Panelist for California Sculptural Tradition: Figurative Sculpture at S/12 Twelfth International Sculpture Conference in Oakland, California.

1983 Moves her studio to a 5,000 square foot warehouse at 1089 Third Street in West Oakland.

1984 The Whitney Museum of American Art launches a solo exhibition of Frey's monumental figures, plates, bricolage sculptures, and paintings.

1986 Artist residency at Manufacture du Sèvres, in France, with Betty Woodman, Adrian Saxe, and James Caswell. Featured artist in NCECA 1986 Exhibition, where Frey also gave a clay demonstration and presentation at the Southwest Craft center in San Antonio, Texas. ?Award of Honor for Sculpture, Arts Commission of San Francisco. ?Grant recipient, $15,000 Artist Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts.

1990 Presenter for La Céramique contemporaine aux États-Unis at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France.

1991 Glaze demonstration and exhibition at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan. Artist residency at The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Frey's silkscreen wallpapers are created. Award winner, Distinguished Women Artist Award and Exhibition, Fresno Art Museum, California.

1992 Artist residency at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, where Frey's first glass sculptures are created.

1993 Leads workshop at National College of Art, Craft, and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. ?Artist residency at Europees Keramisch Werkcentrum, 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.

1994 Fellow, American Craft Council.

1996-97 Moves her studio to a 14,000 square foot warehouse on Adeline Street in Oakland.

1997 Diagnosed with, and treated for, colon cancer.

1999 Named Professor Emerita in Ceramics at CCAC.

2000 Artists' Legacy Foundation is incorporated by cofounders Squeak Carnwath, Gary Knecht, and Viola Frey. Receives Honorary Doctorate from California College of the Arts (formerly CCAC). Receives Honorary Life Award, presented by Martin Lipofsky, at the 34th Annual Conference of National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, in Denver, Colorado.

2002 Award winner, Masters of the Medium for Ceramics, James Renwick Alliance.

2003 Viola Frey Distinguished Visiting Professor Series established at CCA.

    Dimensions:
  • Stretcher: 34 x 20 in. (86.4 x 50.8 cm.), frame: 34 x 25 1/2 in. (86.4 x 64.8 cm.)
  • Artist Name:
  • Viola Frey
  • Medium:
  • Oil on canvas, signed lower right
  • Condition:
  • Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is an opinion, and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Reference to condition written, oral or within a condition report shall not be regarded as a full account of condition and may not include all defects, alterations, or restorations. Absence of a condition report does not imply a lot is flawless or lacking imperfections or damage. Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. Returns shall not be accepted on the basis of condition. 

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May 12, 2023 10:00 AM CDT
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