Sometime in the early 1990s I ran into Robert Sperry (1927 – 1998) in Oaxaco and commented on the brightness of his shoes, remarkable in a dusty town. His wife, Patti Warashina, rolled her eyes. Turns out, because there were half a dozen kids with shoe shine boxes in the town square and Sperry couldn’t bear to favor only one with his trade, every day he gave all a turn, big tip added. The day I saw him, a boy had lined up for seconds, but Sperry recognized him and said, “You already shined them.” In response, the boy spit on Sperry’s shoes and said, “Now they need another one.” Because the jokes he liked best tended to be at his expense, it was Sperry’s favorite story from his trip.
Untitled, Clay and glaze, 1983
His retrospective, Bright Abyss, is at the Bellevue Arts Museum curated by Stefano Catalani and accompanied by a 270-page catalog with full color illustrations, written by Matthew Kangas. In light of the fact that catalogs are getting harder to find (the Seattle Art Museum’s astonishing Calder show doesn’t have one, for instance), BAM’s commitment to full service is admirable.
Untitled, Stoneware with slip
With Warashina and Howard
Kottler, Sperry created a ceramics department at the University of
Washington that captured nationwide recognition.
Big thanks to BAM for this show, even though it sits in the museum’s dread second floor, curling out of dark galleries into dark hallways. The only adequate gallery spaces at BAM are on the third floor, currently housing an exhibit of John Buck’s woodcuts. I would have reversed these shows, as woodcuts are harder to ruin. Just hang them up in a line and turn on the lights.
At the very least, BAM could have painted the second floor galleries white. Matching gallery walls with colors from the art is a bad decorator’s trick. Sperry is dark enough already.
He was an artist with one big idea. Unfortunately, the exhibit generously samples all his ideas, diluting their impact. (As a filmmaker, he was an academic documentarian. As a funk artist, unlike Warashina and Kottler, he was an also-ran.)
In a Sperry retrospective, the strongest work needs to be like the rabbit swallowed whole by a snake, a huge bulge with flattened representations of other things at either end. Wouldn’t it be better to leave out funk, film, prints and public art models? When presenting an artist whom a lot of people even in the Northwest have already forgotten, hit us with your best shot. Sperry deserves nothing less.
Untitled, Stoneware, black glaze, white slip, 1986
His glory is his mud and foam, his crackled white slip on ash-gray stoneware plates, platters and ceramic tiles. The force of gesture
frozen on the surface distills both freedom and a certain kind of Asian
restraint. Within narrow restraints, he opened up a range of
aesthetic possibilities, usually in flat gray under cracked white but sometimes gold patterned with white.
Platter
glaze, crackle glaze 1975
Through Jan. 31.
I think you’re selling Robert Sperry a little short. We all remember him. I like his public art more than you and his videos. But you’re right on about his plates.
Just another Seattle bore from the old days.
Hello Max. Why are you reading my blog? If Robert Sperry is just another Seattle bore from the old days, then so am I. Regina
As an old bore myself, I wonder, who is Max?
See- I knew Bob Sperry- he was a friend- but he exhibited his work, with his name on it, and you could like it or hate it. You could go up to him and diss his work to his face, if you chose.
As you can with mine- I try to spend a fair amount of time at my shows, so I can be insulted in person by all and sundry.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I have more respect for dead artists than live trolls…
Ries. You are making the same point over and over. You use your full name. Shouldn’t everybody? I prefer a first name. My right. This is what I’m saying, and whether I’m saying it with your name or mine, it’s undeniable. Have you seen that big thing he did on 45th? There’s no excuse for such boring public art. Art is much more competitive now than in your time. We don’t want to put up with you all continuing to insist on your fantasies.
Boring is in the eye of the beholder- it is subjective, not objective.
As is “my time”- see, to me, still sitting here breathing, “my time” isnt quite over yet…
Everyone has the right to an alias, a front, a single name, or even a single initial.
My point is that one’s credibility is directly proportional to your willingness to put your own ass on the line- as Bob Sperry did daily.
I have no problem with you dismissing my artwork, or Bob’s, as hopefully outdated and past its pull date- I just like to have the opportunity to reciprocate.
Anonymity seems awfully cool to those who have little to defend- the reason so many of those very clever, anonymous comments on youtube are from teenagers…
I often disagree with Regina- but she puts her money where her mouth is, and signs her name, with a comment box below, to everything she says.
i’m more disappointed than surprised at regina’s flip and glib dismissal of the sperry retrospective. did she even read my book? contrary to what she says, sperry was more than an academic documentarian. his film profiles cast long shadows won several avant-garde film festival awards. when installations of exhibitions are singled out, it usually means the critic is unwilling to undertake serious discussion of the art involved. and thank heavens she shared her boring oaxaca anecdote about bob! while i know he admired and respected her (up to a point), he still frequently repeated his ribald parody of her first and last names. sperry prefigured much postmodern practice, a fact regina completely missed: filmmaking, poetry, photography, sculpture, and a revival of craft practice, all so timely! i believe BAM validated sperry’s multi-talented pursuits, including funk art. if only regina had taken more time and space to analyze rather than dismiss. during his lifetime, she was a better commenator on his work. bob deserved better from regina.
You are all missing the point. Robert “bob” or Mr. Sperry had a fantastic aesthetic sense and was truly plugged into something beyond the material world, he was a true artist. Those who are bored by his work should sit quietly and take another look, not all art has to knock you on your ass to be relevent. His art is timeless and way ahead of it’s time, judging by some of the comments the world still has a lot of catching up to do.