Bill Stewart (1941-2020)

Cyclically throughout his career, Stewart’s ceramic sculptures have been brightly colored, wildly patterned, and comical combinations of animal forms. His whimsical Mask cannot quite be placed within a particular culture. It might appear to some to be like an updated relic from the commedia dell’arte, 16^th-18^th century Italian popular comedy. To others, it appears like characters from the Beatles’ psychedelic, animated feature film, Yellow Submarine (1968). In either event, the personality of whoever would wear this mask is cleverly disguised.

Label text by Joan Vita Marotta (2002) and Nancy Weekly (2021)