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Image of Little French Girl

Little French Girl
Sculpture

1996
61 x 17 1/4 x 12 in. (154.94 x 43.82 x 30.48 cm)

Richard Shaw (Hollywood, California, 1941 - )

Object Type: Sculpture
Medium and Support: Porcelain with decal overglazes
Credit Line: Museum purchase with the support of Drew and Katie Gibson, the Oshman Family Foundation, and the Lipman Family Foundation in honor of Wendy Kirst.
Accession Number: 2000.24

Exhibition

Nuts and Who's: A Candy Store Sampler, August 11, 2023 – February 25, 2024, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

Renagade Humor
, February 3 - July 8, 2012, New Wind, Second Floor, Central and South Galleries, San José Museum of Art.

Tales from the Kiln: Contemporary Ceramics, September 1, 2005 – July 9, 2006, New Wing, Second Floor, North Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

Collection Highlights, November 2, 2002 - September 12, 2004, New Wing, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, First Floor, San José Museum of Art.

Collecting Our Thoughts: The Community Responds to Art in the Permanent Collection, June 23, 2001 - September 23, 2001, New Wing, Metro A, Skylight and South Galleries, Second Floor, San José Museum of Art.

The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration
, co-organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri April 7 - June 18, 2000; and the San Jose Museum of Art, September 3-November 26, 2000, New Wing, Metro A, Skylight and South Galleries, Second Floor.

SJMA Label Text


Renegade Humor (2012)

Richard Shaw’s ceramic sculptures profit from the spark that occurs when two profoundly disparate elements meet unexpectedly. Irony and incongruity became central features in Shaw’s work soon after he enrolled in the MA program at the University of California, Davis. His work took an important turn in the mid-1970s, when he began experimenting with glazing and photosilkscreen. Ultimately Shaw refined the trompe-l’oeil technique for which he is best known, creating whimsical “stick figures” out of what appear to be books, playing cards, and other common objects.

Little French Girl, a spindly pumpkin-headed figure composed of clay hamburgers and hot dogs, was inspired by an elegant sculpture of the same name by Constantin Brancusi in The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Shaw’s witty version exhibits remarkably realistic surfaces: melting brie that forms the figure’s foot oozes and glistens; saltines on the base appear dry and flaky; a solitary domino is hard-edged and shiny. An exemplary representation of Shaw’s work, is a skillful combination of absurd juxtapositions, witty references to art history, and formal innovation.

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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Dimensions
  • Sculpture Dimensions: 61 x 17 1/4 x 12 in. (154.94 x 43.82 x 30.48 cm)

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