Kenneth Price
Zizi2011

Not on view

Ceramic sculpture of smooth, interlocking tube-like forms coiled into a low horizontal mass, covered in a speckled teal and ivory surface

Sculpture of abstract biomorphic form in turquoise with multicolored speckled surface, smooth rounded lobes curving horizontally with two smaller forms rising at left.

Ceramic sculpture with rounded, biomorphic forms rising from a flat circular base, covered in a speckled glaze of teal, cream, and brown flecks with a glossy finish.

Ceramic sculpture with a sinuous, coiling abstract form covered in a speckled glaze of teal, navy, and scattered orange and red spots against a light grey background.

Close-up of a ceramic vessel interior with pale celadon ground, scattered dark teal spots, and small eye-like markings in orange, yellow, and purple arranged across the curved surface.

Artist or Maker: Kenneth Price
United States, 1935-2012
Title: Zizi
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 2011
Medium: Fired and painted clay
Dimensions: 16 1/2 x 24 x 17 in. (41.91 x 60.96 x 43.18 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Modern and Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and gift of Matthew Marks
Accession Number: M.2011.96
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: For more than fifty years, Los Angeles artist Ken Price made remarkable and innovative works that redefined contemporary sculptural practice. Beginning in the late 1950s, together with Peter Voulkos and John Mason, he helped to push work with clay well beyond traditionally assigned roles. From his suggestively oozing eggs made in the 1960s to the highly colorful architectural works of the 1980s, Price’s early sculptures reflect his lifelong interest in precision and finish.

Zizi is among his last finished pieces. Its surface is composed of roughly seventy layers of paint that he painstakingly sanded, each stratum uncovered as he varied the pressure of his sanding. The result is a lyrical composition of colors held mystically together in a layered arrangement that is unmistakably anthropomorphic. Subtly erotic and moltenlike, Price’s haunting, intimate forms occupy a unique place in American sculpture.

Stephanie Barron
Selected Bibliography: Barron, Stephanie and Lauren Bergman. Ken Price Sculpture: a Retrospective. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico, 2012.
Barron, Stephanie. Acknowledgments, or Every Label Tells a Story. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues: LACMA, 2017.
Eliel, Carol, editor. Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2021.
Copyright: © Estate of Ken Price

Related Unframed

Kenneth Price
Zizi2011

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Kenneth Price
United States, 1935-2012
Title: Zizi
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 2011
Medium: Fired and painted clay
Dimensions: 16 1/2 x 24 x 17 in. (41.91 x 60.96 x 43.18 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Modern and Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and gift of Matthew Marks
Accession Number: M.2011.96
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: For more than fifty years, Los Angeles artist Ken Price made remarkable and innovative works that redefined contemporary sculptural practice. Beginning in the late 1950s, together with Peter Voulkos and John Mason, he helped to push work with clay well beyond traditionally assigned roles. From his suggestively oozing eggs made in the 1960s to the highly colorful architectural works of the 1980s, Price’s early sculptures reflect his lifelong interest in precision and finish.

Zizi is among his last finished pieces. Its surface is composed of roughly seventy layers of paint that he painstakingly sanded, each stratum uncovered as he varied the pressure of his sanding. The result is a lyrical composition of colors held mystically together in a layered arrangement that is unmistakably anthropomorphic. Subtly erotic and moltenlike, Price’s haunting, intimate forms occupy a unique place in American sculpture.

Stephanie Barron
Selected Bibliography: Barron, Stephanie and Lauren Bergman. Ken Price Sculpture: a Retrospective. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico, 2012.
Barron, Stephanie. Acknowledgments, or Every Label Tells a Story. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues: LACMA, 2017.
Eliel, Carol, editor. Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2021.
Copyright: © Estate of Ken Price

Related Unframed

This Weekend at LACMA: Ken Price and Drawing Surrealism Close, Christopher Nolan in Person, Polanski's Tess, and More

January 4, 2013

The Wonders of Zizi and Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective

December 19, 2012

This Weekend at LACMA: Levitated Mass Updates, Ellsworth Kelly Film Series, Ken Price and Mike Kelley Tributes, and More

March 2, 2012

Ken Price 1935–2012

February 27, 2012