SNYDER EXPLAINS SCULPTURES’ ROOTS

By Herald Art Critic

Current exhibition of eight life-size ceramic figures and two figurative wall pieces at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art.

Featured Work -

CERAMIC FIGURE – Restoration of Hope II, 1983 is the title of this life-size ceramic man by Oakland sculptor Dan Snyder, which is on view in his solo show at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art.

Snyder on Rome -

“At first in Rome, I was the crazy American trying to maintain an American pace. But I slowed down once I realized Rome is the real thing, that its art is centuries old and always on the street within view.” Snyder hastened to add, however, that his 10 sculptures in Monterey exemplify, as well, the absorption of influences derived from his undergraduate studies at Penn State University, graduate work at the University of California, Davis, and postgraduate work in 1973 as a Prix de Rome fellow in Italy.

Process & Technique -

“I start with a clay original. Next I make a plaster mold off it. Next I lay slabs of clay in the plaster mold, which really is a negative made off the positive clay original. Having done that, I make next a hollow cement core as a ground surface for the application of the bisque-fired and raku-glazed shards of clay. These shards, originally slabs of clay in the plaster mold, are finally applied to the cement core. The value of this process, however tedious, is that it allows me to make ceramic sculptures that are not gravity bound.”

All of his free-standing sculptures appear to rise like ballet dancers on their points from the gallery floor.

Influences & Humor -

The free-standing terracotta bisque-fired sculpture titled Return of the Man Shattered on his 30th Birthday contains vestiges of the funk humor which prevailed on the Davis campus when such faculty notables as Robert Arneson, William Wiley and Manuel Neri were in full swing. Another sculpture titled Outlook alludes to the cigar-store Indian of early American folk art.

Contrast in Style -

An obvious contrast to these two humorous pieces are the six clay and cast stone sculptures rising from flat terrazzo pedestals throughout the gallery like attenuated caryatids. Snyder acknowledged that the excessively slim, column-like sculptures were partially inspired by Giacometti, Rodin and Marini—“the people I devoured in graduate school, but more largely by some little-known prehistoric rock engravings in Italy near Brescia.” “Not too much has been publicized about the engravings,” Snyder explained. “I learned about them at the American Academy, found that they date from 10,000 to 3,000 B.C. and feel they are very close in style and concept to our American Indian petroglyphs.”

Physical Labor -

Snyder reflected, “Sculpture is basically physical labor, but I enjoy it.” He recently completed a wall of playful aluminum cut-outs for the San Francisco Airport’s international terminal. When not wrestling with a hundred pounds or more of cement, quick-setting plaster or heavy raku-fired shards, Snyder turns to golf: he closed the interview with a happy smile and the news that “I’m going to play Spyglass tomorrow.”

📰 The Sunday Peninsula Herald Sunday, September 25, 1983 – p. 7B – Monterey, California