David Gilhooly was a leading figure in the San Francisco Bay area Funk movement of the mid 1960s and instrumental in establishing ceramics as a significant medium in contemporary art of the period. The son of a veterinarian, he initially enrolled in biology at the University of California, Davis, before switching to anthropology, and finally ceramics. These experiences informed his whimsical and irreverent animal ceramics. Gilhooly challenged the seriousness of the art world, parodying ancient civilisations, religion, politics and culture through the absurd imagery of his alternative universe known as FrogWorld. His work investigates notions of nationalism and the hero worship of historic figures though monuments and sculpture.

If you make things out of clay, and if you are interested in the history of clay, art, or even just the world, it is hard to escape doing a bust of a hero. You’re worshipping him and, at the same time, controlling him by cutting off at the chest and mounting him on a base.^[i]

These works, including Mao Tse Toad II 1976, reflect history while also seeking to reimagine it by reworking it in clay.

Simeran Maxwell

^[i] David Gilhooly, quoted in Kenneth Baker, David Gilhooly, John Natsoulas Press, Davis, 1992, p 29.