Peter Voulkos
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Peter Voulkos (January 29, 1924 - 2002) was an American artist known for his Abstract Expressionist ceramic sculptures, which bounded the traditional divide between ceramic crafts and fine art.
Voulkos was born in Bozeman, Montana into a family of Greek immigrants. He first studied painting and ceramics at Montana State University (then Montana State College) in Bozeman, then earned an MFA degree from the California College of the Arts. He began his career producing functional dinnerware in Bozeman, Montana. His talent was quickly recognized and he soon began winning prizes. In 1954, after founding the ceramics department at the Otis College of Art and Design (then called the Los Angeles County Art Institute), his work rapidly became abstract and sculptural. He moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he also founded the ceramics department, and where he taught from 1959 until 1985. Among his students were many ceramic artists who became well known in their own right.
Voulkos' sculptures are famous for their visual weight, their freely-formed construction, and their aggressive and energetic decoration. He would vigorously tear, pound, and gouge the surfaces of his pieces. At some points in his career, he cast his sculptures in bronze; in other periods he kept as ceramic and finished them with painted brushstrokes. In 1979 he was introduced to the use of wood kilns by Peter Callas; much of his late work is wood-fired.
Voulkos' work is found in museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC; the Tokyo Folk Art Museum, in Japan; the National Gallery, in Melbourne, Australia; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London.
Source
Smith, Roberta. Peter Voulkos, 78, A Master of Expressive Ceramics, Dies, New York Times, Feb. 21, 2002, p. B9.External link
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