Robert Cremean exhibition, drawings and sculpture

In the Santa Barbara Museum of Art's basement, in Storage Vault No. 2, is an enormous sculpture, an "eminence grise" in grey wood, cloth and plaster. The rest of the sculpture stored here looks as though it is sleeping; this piece, in spite of its featureless faces, feels unquestionably awake. It is called "The Family of Robert Feke" and is a work of Robert Cremean's acquired by the museum from his one-man show here in 1961 for the Donald Bear Memorial Collection. It depicts quite abstractly a woman in a great chair, holding a child. Seeing it in the grey light of the vault, it has all the grandeur and solemnity of a gigantic enthroned medieval madonna. I had thought that some of my reactions to the piece were related to its being in the vault, and were personal sub-conscious projections of my own. When the piece is on display in the galleries, however, it continues to have this aura, this emanation about it, a most curious phenomenon, since in many ways its features and details and surfaces are blank, inaccessable and unrevealing. This vital quality, this potency, permeates all his work. In the continuing dialogue between his curved, organic lines and his rectilinear environments, in the complex interaction of these two, this mysterious hidden force continues to glow and to attract the sensibilities of the viewer to a degree beyond accounting. It is a special pleasure, therefore, to have this second major exhibition of the work of Robert Cremean at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. We are grateful for everything that the artist, that Esther and Bob Robles and that the lenders have done to make it possible. Paul Chadbourne Mills Director Santa Barbara Museum of Art The viewer does not simply approach the sculpture of Robert Cremean but is forcefully drawn to it. The artist through his mastery of style and technique immerses us in his special vision. We are struck by the complete control of media, whether wood, bronze or marble and which allows him to present his figures to us. We then can approach these forms in an almost exploratory manner, always finding new and exciting details. These sculptures which change as we view them responding to the mood of the observer, "...at one time it may be apathetic; at another light and happy; at another stately and removed; at another intimate and tender, whimsical and humorous; at another despairing and tragic." The Phoenix Art Museum is most pleased to be able to participate in this exhibition of Robert Cremean's work. We must thank both the artist and the Esther Robles Gallery for the organization of this extraordinary presentation. Robert H. Frankel Assistant Director Phoenix Art Museum