di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art maintains a permanent collection of works by Northern California artists that was originally collected by Rene di Rosa (1919-2010) and Veronica di Rosa (1934–1991). The collection contains notable works by artists living or working in the San Francisco Bay Area from mid-twentieth century to the early twenty-first century, highlighting a story of experimentation of the artists of the region. It is displayed in part, on a rotating basis, in the galleries at di Rosa.
This page represents a just a portion of di Rosa’s rich permanent collection. Stay tuned as we continue to populate this page with artworks from our collection.
di Rosa strives to be a resource for educators, students and lifelong learners. For research inquiries, please contact curatorial@dirosaart.org.
Ghost Jar with Butterflies
Sculpture
Ceramic jar with ghost-head lid; base of jar glazed in reds and greens with butterfly decals
70
Glazed ceramic
Sculpture
AR70
Art Unlimited
Purchase
James Melchert
1964
Object
9-1/2 in
8 in
8 in
Far Out
August 2 - October 4, 2025, di Rosa SF
Building A Different Model: Selections from the di Rosa Collection
March 9 - December 30, 2019, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa
Curator
2019
Alongside Peter Voulkos in the famed ceramic studio at the University of California, Berkeley, James Melchert began subverting the idea of the vessel. His Ghost Jar series evolved in the early 1960s in tandem with the off-kilter, woozy fantasies of Bruce Conner and William T. Wiley. As he wrote in 2014 for this museum, “I made a press mold of a small head (a playful caricature of Pete Voulkos complete with a cigar in his mouth) that the painter Nathan Oliveira had made as a kiln god for the firing in which Nate had a vessel. It sat atop the kiln for months before it eventually fell off and broke. When I found it, enough of the features were left so I put it to use, inspiring a series of works that alluded to a person’s past (but not their death).”