(Tricia Tomiyoshi/News-Sentinel)

Standing Tall

Lodi native Viola Frey's tower of earthenware glaze is showcased at the de Young Museum.

He scowls in the shadows. A besuited Goliath with his hands clenched on hips, brows furrowed, looking every bit the middle manager displeased with staff performance. Dabs of sky blue cross his face like war paint, circus colors spatter his hulking frame.

His beady eyes hurl daggers at passersby as they enter his chamber in San Francisco's M.H. de Young Museum, a dimly lit nook also occupied by willow tree people, a silk-smooth rocking chair, a colossal bowl of fruit — a midnight snack, perhaps, for this waking giant — made of blown (or should we say, overblown) glass.

He is a nameless wonder, known only as "Man Observing Series II," but he is a towering presence, nine feet tall, made of glazed earthenware, steel and cement. He is larger than life, just like Viola Frey herself, his Lodi-born creator, who birthed him in her Oakland studio in 1984.

Frey grew up on a six-acre zinfandel farm in Lodi, a country girl by all accounts, whose life's calling led her to stray far from home and never look back. She studied art at Delta College for two years, before leaving the area to attend the California College of the Arts in Oakland, where she fluorished not only as a ceramics artist, but as a painter, clay sculptor and teacher.

She never married or had children. Instead, her legacy has consisted of the hundreds-strong army of color-strewn male and female sculptures (like "Man Observing Series II") that Frey spawned before her death at the age of 70. Other works she produced have found homes in venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

"Through her work, Viola Frey helped to free ceramics from their traditional confining categorization as 'craft,' earning such sculptures widespread acceptance as 'fine art,'" said Timothy Anglin Burgard, curator of American art at the de Young.

"Man Observing Series II" was bequest to the de Young Museum by art collectors George and Dorothy Saxe, of Menlo Park and San Francisco. The price they paid for him remains private, although Frey's large-scale sculptures are said to range from $10,000 to $250,000 apiece.

Lodi native Viola Frey creates a large-scale sculpture in her art studio in Oakland. She passed away two years ago. (Courtesy photo)

Burgard sees Frey as a perceptive observer and a critic of the human condition. He also credits her for helping to reintroduce humor and satire as a force in the contemporary art world.

In fact, "Man Observing Series II" may have had a satirical message. He notes that the sculpture was created in a presidential year and sees the resemblance between the sculpture and Ronald Reagan or, at the very least, a conservative businessman, communicating a parent-like disapproval with his stance. It contrasts greatly with his brightly colored exterior.

Frey, however, didn't live long enough to see her creation standing menacingly in this darkened room, illuminated by stylish strings of hanging lights (Frey died in 2004 and the de Young Museum re-opened last October). Nor was she able to see the bewildered expressions of museum visitors, craning their necks to study this unusual character.

"Well, it's big," said Bob Kolling, a tourist from Australia. "It kind of reminds me of those commercials in California, 'Go See Cal,'" he said, referring to the used car dealership commercials for Cal Worthington.

Bay Area resident Anne Hays quietly reads the short description below the sculpture — which lists its title, Frey's name and the materials used — before glancing back at the tower of a man before her.

"It's steel and cement. Huh ..." Hays says. "My first thought when I walked into the room was that it was papier mache. Interesting."

"I could stare at it for awhile," her granddaughter Rebecca Hays remarks. "It's mesmerizing."

And with that, she turns her attention back to Viola Frey's handiwork, breathing in his colors, digesting his features. His tidy crop of hair. His working man's loafers. His rainbow bright blazer. An art installation of blown glass droplets hangs overhead, casting tear-shaped shadows on the walls.