Marc Zimmerman "Long Face Totem Sculpture 2" Glazed Ceramic, 62 Inches Tall, Elongated Face and Bird, Multi-Color Glaze, Contemporary Art West Coast

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Description

A companion piece to the first Long Face in spirit and subject, this totem arrives at its own conclusions. Where … Read more A companion piece to the first Long Face in spirit and subject, this totem arrives at its own conclusions. Where Zimmerman's process is by definition non-repeating, each form made fresh, each stacking decision made in the moment of creation without reference to a fixed plan, the two Long Face works share a family resemblance while remaining fully independent objects. This one carries a different chromatic temperature, a different arrangement of the subsidiary forms along the shaft, a different relationship between the face at its apex and the elements that lead the eye toward it. 

Zimmerman has described his creative method as one of intuitive succession: make a part, then let that part tell you what comes next. The result is a practice that has more in common with jazz improvisation than with conventional sculptural planning. No two performances are identical; no two totems are alike. This piece is a second variation on a theme, and like all good variations it illuminates the theme by departing from it.

ARTIST BIO:
Marc Zimmerman is an American painter and ceramic sculptor based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. For more than four decades, his work has opened doors into imagined worlds: lush jungles filled with fantastical botanical forms, sun-drenched Mediterranean villages, vibrant florals, and ceramic totems that blend ancient influences with a distinctly contemporary vision. Zimmerman's artistic language was shaped by an unusually varied career. His background as a woodcut printmaker brought compositional clarity and strong graphic structure to his paintings, while the influence of Henri Rousseau and Paul Gauguin inspired his richly imagined landscapes. Time spent living and painting in Kauai, along with extensive travel throughout Mexico and Europe, infused his work with the saturated light, color, and atmosphere that define his celebrated Jungle, Village, and Tropical Floral series.

In recent years, Zimmerman returned to his earliest passion, clay, creating his Garden Totem series from hand-sculpted and individually glazed ceramic elements stacked into spontaneous vertical compositions. Rooted in his pottery experience in Venice Beach during the 1960s and 70s, these works bring the same exuberance, movement, and inventive use of color found throughout his paintings into three-dimensional form. His work is represented by galleries in California, Florida, and New York, and is held in private collections throughout the United States and internationally. See less