Remembering American sculptor Tony Feher.
American sculptor Tony Feher died Friday, at age 60, of liver cancer.
A native of Albuquerque, N.M., who grew up in Corpus Christi, Feher had deep ties to Houston, where he was represented by Hiram Butler Gallery. The Blaffer Art Museum presented a 20-year retrospective of his works in late 2012 and early 2013, with a companion show at DiverseWorks.
“Tony’s poignant and inimitable touch transformed materials and people in equally profound ways,” said Blaffer director Claudia Schmuckli, who curated the critically acclaimed show.
Feher’s retrospective traveled to Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio, but the artist often returned to the Blaffer, where he was not above manning the front desk.
Hiram Butler said Feher was not only a great artist but a wonderful person. “He had a wicked tongue, but he could turn on a dime and be the most sensitive person you could imagine,” Butler said.
He said while Feher’s cancer was a long-term illness, doctors had told the artist a few weeks ago that he had at least six months to live — so his sudden death came as a shock to friends.
University of Houston public art collection curator Mike Guidry was among those saddened.
Guidry said his group was in the process of commissioning a major piece by Feher for the university’s Sugar Land campus.
“Tony was an amazing artist and man, and a joy to be around,” Guidry said.
The commission was planned as a large-scale planting similar to one Feher created in 2012, “Super Special Happy Place,” for the lawn of a federal courthouse in Illinois. That was his first all-natural work, a twoacre installation with five types of crab apple trees. The Sugar Land piece, designed with palms, was to be called “A Glorious Site of Tremendous Importance.” Inside galleries, Feher more famously employed the humblest of materials — empty plastic water bottles, glass jars, metal washers and clear tubing filled with colored water that he draped ever-sovulnerably, with push pins.
“I realized that … anything was a possibility, and there were no materials, no objects, no shard of anything too humble or common or cheap to ignore,” Feher said during an emotional interview with the Chronicle in 2012.
Schmuckli said Feher was the first to explore his simple, found materials consistently. “The work resonates with so much joy and charm and beauty, you wouldn’t necessarily be aware of the difficulties,” she said. “It’s very serious, very rigorous, formally and conceptually speaking, but it has this levity about it.”
Feher loved how condensate can form in plastic bottles, liquid that, to him, represented the essence of life. He considered the twine from which bottles might dangle a form of drawing. He also “painted” with colored water by lining up bottles and filling them at different levels to create effects.
His vessels, inspired by centuries of human culture, were a metaphor for the human body. Feher who had AIDS, was among the first artists to deal with the crisis.
One of the most poignant works of his retrospective, “The Penny Piece,” consisted of a jar and a line of pennies on a shelf. He said it was about coming to terms with his mortality. It held a penny from each year of his life. He said he would add one more each birthday, signifying another year of survival.
“I have room to be 96 years old on the shelf,” he quipped. “And if it falls off the edge, I’ll be happy to add another shelf.”
Memorial services are pending.