THE ART OF ROBERT CREMEAN: Selected Works, 1952-2005

Robert Cremean (1932 – Present) is a sculptor (and occasional painter) born in Ohio, now based in Tomales Bay, California. Cremean does superlative figurative work. However, he has largely isolated himself from the American art mainstream to the extent that any showing is a considerable rarity. He’s developed, via a benefactor, an “arrangement” with the Fresno Art Museum whereby it displays most of his new work. This book is from a show at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, in 2005. Now 88, Cremean was early—and unsurprisingly-- influenced by medieval art, particularly the illuminated Chaucer manuscript at the Huntington Library. “I was amazed at the way the words and pictures met one another on the page.” Most of his painted words are transcribed from his own notebooks.