Archived Exhibition
Peter Voulkos | The Montana, Otis & Berkeley Years
January 22 – February 21, 2009
Reception: Saturday, January 24, 2009, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Biography

It is hard to imagine the time before Peter Voulkos (1924 - 2001), when American ceramics were strictly functional and relegated to the realm of craft. Voulkos, master ceramist and grandfather of the contemporary ceramics movement, changed this perception in a few short years.

This survey follows the trajectory of Voulkos' career by exhibiting early functional works from Montana, to Los Angeles where the work started to loosen up, and finally, to Berkeley where his artistic expression would flourish.

Special to this exhibition are a pair of diminutive cups from 1961 with allusions to the larger stacks that would come later. Like the stacks, these cups include slab work with punch through cut surfaces and resonate with the immense power found in his larger works.

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