Standing Nude, 1980
Inventory # 43395

Original gouache on paper. Signed and dated in pencil in the lower left, "Neri '80."

Image size: 8 3/4" x 11 1/2"

Manuel Neri was born in Sanger, California, in 1930. He studied in Oakland, California at the California College of Arts and Crafts, and in San Francisco at the California School of Fine Arts. He has participated in, and has been featured worldwide in numerous group and solo exhibitions in museums and private galleries. He is one of the only figurative sculptors to have been connected with the acclaimed 1950s-1960s San Francisco Bay Area figurative painters.

Initially, Neri began sculpting in "junk" burlap, wire, and cardboard and then plaster. His style is unique - he creates a figure, most often the same female used in a variety of poses and then paints it with vibrant colors using very lush and expressive brush strokes. During the 1978-1980 period, his works were mainly created on paper via photographed poses. He would 'invent' the bodies underneath the clothes by painting over the glossy pages. Neri has been influenced greatly by many of his teachers and mentors, including Elmer Bischoff, David Park, Nathan Oliveira, and Richard Diebenkorn, who integrated the lessons of abstract expressionism into figurative painting and drawing. Their approaches emphasized spontaneity, intuition, and an overall formal composition.

His works are included in prominent public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the San Diego Museum of Art. Manuel Neri is a member of the Bay Area Figurative School (including Richard Diebenkorn and David Park) and maintains studios in Benicia, California and in Carrara, Italy.