Cast bronze, ceramic shell and resin, 1990. 432x216x152 mm; 17x8 1/2x6 inches (not including the painted 6-inch high steel base).
Provenance: collection of the artist.
Exhibited: A Woman's Journey: the Life and Work of Artis Lane, California African-American Museum, Los Angeles, September 27, 2007 - March 2, 2008.
Warrior Emerging incorporates many of the themes found in Artis Lane's works and displays her innovative approach to her medium. It is a representation of both an athletic torso--with the pose of a Rennaissance figure and the muscularity and helmet of a football player--and a dynamic human spirit. In these experimental sculptures, the emergence of the bronze figures from their ceramic molds symbolizes man's emergence from material thinking into spiritual consciousness. As the bronze emerges from casting, Lane has left fragments of the ceramic mold bonded to the bronze that is sealed with resin. This bronze figure is only the third sculpture by Artis Lane to come to auction and epitomizes her interest in sculptural figurative form.
Born in Ontario, Canada, Artis Lane studied at the Art College in Toronto, the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI and the University of California in Los Angeles. In 1984, the artist had one of her first solo exhibitions at the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles. Today, Artis Lane is celebrated for her portraits in both sculpture and painting of famous and historic figures. She has been commissioned to paint portraits of such luminaries as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Michael Jordan, President Kennedy (for Frank Sinatra), Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and Oprah Winfrey. In 2007, the California African American Museum of Los Angeles mounted a major retrospective exhibition of her work. In 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled Lane's bronze bust of Sojourner Truth, which became the first sculpture of a black woman installed in the U.S. Capitol.
