A talk by renowned curator Jock Reynolds (UC Davis MFA, 1972) will look at the work of UC Davis first-generation artist Manuel Neri through lenses of personal memory and deep art historical understanding. The talk is Saturday, March 9, 2-3:30 p.m. at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on the UC Davis campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Reynolds, who studied under Neri and served as his teaching assistant, is the author of Manuel Neri: The Human Figure in Plaster and on Paper (2018, Yale University Press). In this presentation at the Manetti Shrem Museum, Reynolds will discuss Neri’s studio process, which he observed firsthand, and will explore the artist’s impact on the field of sculpture.

The book, according to the publisher, traces the compelling yet often contradictory thematic arcs of Neri’s powerful work and his greater impact on the field of sculpture. The book was published in conjunction with a Yale University Art Gallery exhibition by the same name. Reynolds headed that museum for two decades.

At the heart of the publication are Reynolds’ personal reflections on Neri and his legacy as a teacher, adding insight and intimacy to the scholarly understanding of the artist. Photographs of Neri in his studio, archival images, and installation photographs of the related exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery round out the book.

Neri was born in the Central Valley of California. He pursued an education and an art career and eventually taught art classes at UC Davis with other artists who made up the “first-generation” art faculty beginning in the 1960s, including Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson and William Wiley.  

For information on this and other events, go here.