Among the first American sculptors to embrace the figure after Abstract Expressionism’s dominance of contemporary art in the post-war period, Robert Cremean has long rejected the idea that only pure form is capable of conveying meaning. In this, Cremean was ready to reassert the human figure in his work at the exact moment in the early 1950s that the Bay Area Figuratives made their return to the subject matter. For more than 50 years, Cremean has used the body to make work that addresses our fragile humanity.

Personal signs and symbols are central to Cremean’s production, as are formal, aesthetic issues, but all are secondary to the human form and the artist’s message. He has worked in marble, bronze, wood, and wood mâché to create figures as beautiful as a Renaissance sculpture of David, or as haunting as any Surrealist use of the mannequin, especially that of Hans Bellmer. Often, his sculptures are autobiographical, such as the Study for Homage to Paul Apostle, above, an actual person with whom Cremean was once acquainted.