Nathan Joseph Roderick Oliveira (1928-2010). Figure One, 1982. Bronze with brown patina. 24 x 24 x 18-3/4 inches (61.0 x...

Description

Nathan Joseph Roderick Oliveira (1928-2010)
Figure One, 1982
Bronze with brown patina
24 x 24 x 18-3/4 inches (61.0 x 61.0 x 47.6 cm)
From an edition of 7.
Inscribed: N. Oliveira '82

PROVENANCE:
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California;
Private collection, San Rafael, California, acquired from the above, 1985.

In 1982, Nathan Oliveira's former students Charles Hine and Richard Newlin proposed that the artist produce a bronze edition of his works. Hines and Newlin had assisted Oliveira with his prints and saw the artist's potential to create three-dimensional work. They purchased the necessary materials, set up a sculpture workshop in Oliveira's studio, and published a series of sculptures.

Oliveira worked from memory on the first sculptures, including Figure One. We see the same emotion-laden, aggressive gestural style as his paintings of singular figures. The strange, haunted-looking woman lacks the anatomical detail we typically associate with portraiture and suggests a more fundamental human experience or spiritual physicality.

As Associate Director of SFMOMA, George Neubert noted that Oliveira's sculptures "have a direct, almost primitive appeal that parallels universal human experience and, in turn, reveals insights into our relationship with the environment. The figurative work is disarming in its affirmation of the delicacy and vulnerability of human flesh...They powerfully awaken us to life and existence."


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