Sacramento Bus Tour of Fred Ball’s Enamels
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Registration is closed for this unique event!
To learn more about the legacy of Ball visit the Center’s most recent blog post: How Now Fred Ball?
The Center for Enamel Art bus tour to see a few of Fred Uhl Ball’s (1945-1985) large scale enamel installations will be a unique experience for anyone wanting to learn more about Ball and his relationship to the Sacramento arts community. Susan Willoughby, who is in charge of Ball’s estate, will lead the bus tour. We will break for lunch at the Crocker Art Museum where we will see more of Ball’s work in the Little Dreams retrospective enamel exhibition which we, in Northern California, are fortunate to be able to see. The curatorial staff at the Crocker will also be bringing out some of Ball’s work that is in their permanent collection to show us. The tour will include stops at at least 3 sites besides the Crocker. Some of the sites are not easily accessible to the general public.
Fred Ball: The Way Home
Ball was an enamelist who lived and taught in Sacramento. Once viewed as highly unorthodox, Ball’s techniques and approach to enameling nonetheless created a firm basis for current contemporary enameling. The techniques he wrote about in his out-of-print Experimental Techniques in Enameling (1972) have influenced many contemporary enamelists. Some of the enamelists in the Little Dreams exhibition have been influenced by Ball’s work.
Ball created several large enameled copper wall pieces in the 1980’s for several public spaces in and around downtown Sacramento. One of his most famous pieces is The Way Home, which decorates a side of the City Parking Garage at 3rd and L Street, where the tour will begin and end. The image at the top of the Center’s home page is a detail from The Way Home.
The Center wishes to thank the Crocker Museum and the estate of Fred Ball for the support in making this tour possible.
