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Stephen de Staebler: Masks and Monumental Figures
21 Nov 2021 — 3 Apr 2022 at Crocker Art Museum
· Sacramento
This 2021 exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum brought together a compelling selection of works by California sculptor Stephen de Staebler, celebrated for his deeply expressive approach to the human figure.
De Staebler's practice centered on fragmented, elemental forms — torsos, limbs, and faces — rendered in fired clay and bronze. His masks and monumental figures carry a raw, existential weight, evoking themes of mortality, endurance, and the passage of time.
The exhibition offered visitors a rare opportunity to experience the full range of de Staebler's vision, from intimate ceramic masks to towering figurative works that command the space around them.
De Staebler's practice centered on fragmented, elemental forms — torsos, limbs, and faces — rendered in fired clay and bronze. His masks and monumental figures carry a raw, existential weight, evoking themes of mortality, endurance, and the passage of time.
The exhibition offered visitors a rare opportunity to experience the full range of de Staebler's vision, from intimate ceramic masks to towering figurative works that command the space around them.
About the artist
Stephen de Staebler
1933–2011
Stephen De Staebler was an American sculptor, printmaker, and educator, he was best recognized for his work in clay and bronze. Totemic and fragmented in form, De Staebler's figurative sculptures call forth the many contingencies of the human condition, such as resiliency and fragility, growth and…
About the artist →About the venue
Crocker Art Museum
· Sacramento
The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating from the Gold Rush to the present, European paintings…