Nixon, Bruce with an Introduction by Maxwell L. Anderson — Manuel Neri: The Figure in Relief
New York and Manchester, Hudson Hills Press, 2006. Hardcover. Turquoise cloth with color pictorial dustjacket. 195 pp. 240 color plates. Manuel Neris concern with the dynamic nature of the architectural or special environment has developed his keen understanding of its potency as a setting for the figure. Since the early 1970s, Neri has worked with the same model, Mary Julia Klimenko. She has also become a collaborator in every sense, whether in the poses she assumes, her gestures, the poetry she reads out loud as Neri works, or in the original poetry she writes, which is the basis for a series of spectacular artists books they have created together. Through 10 bronze sculptures with oil-based pigments, this exhibition offers an exploration of Neris ideas about the figure in sculptural space and within the relief format. The direct physicality of the works in this exhibition, with their often raw color, fragmented bodies, and open process of creation gives entrance to deeper strains of emotion and historical reference that only observation and time reveal for the viewer. (From Portland Art Mueum website, one of the venues for the exhibition for which this book serves as the catalogue.). As new .
