Anthropomorphic Male with Rabbit in Hat (New World Series)

ugh Michael Lucero has used various materials throughout his career, the sculptor is most renowned for his eclectic approach to clay. In 1978, the artist finished graduate studies with the ceramic artists Howard Kottler and Patti Warashina at University of Washington; the same year he received the Young American Award from the Museum of Contemporary Craft Council. Often, his sculptures can be described as “surrealist hybrids,” wherein familiar forms are combined into new structures. He has referenced contemporary material culture, ceramic traditions, and art histories of Africa, ancient Greece, and the Pre-Columbian Americas. “Anthropomorphic Male with Rabbit in Hat” is a figural sculpture from Lucero’s ‘New World Series,’ a group of artworks that investigates the outcomes of European colonization in the Americas. Like others from the series, the figure wears a top hat, an accessory that became fashionable in Europe in the late eighteenth century. Though a specific culture was not mentioned by the Lucero, the man’s form is said to suggest ceramics from Pre-Columbian civilizations. As described by Bruce W. Pepich of the Racine Art Museum, “Lucero demonstrates no bitterness towards Columbus’ discovery. He perceives the Europeans’ arrival on these shores as a multi-cultural bonanza rather than a portent of genocide.”