Peter Voulkos

1924Born Bozeman, Montana

2002Died Bowling Green, Ohio

EDUCATION

1951BS Painting, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana

1952MFA California College of the Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California

RESIDENCIES

1951-1954Resident Potter, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana

WORK EXPERIENCE

1943-1946United States Army

1953 Summer Instructor, Black Mountain College, Asheville, North Carolina

1954-1959Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California

1959-1985Faculty, University of California, Berkeley, California

BIOGRAPHY

Peter Voulkos is known for  Abstract Expressionist ceramic sculpture and plates characterized by large-scale, unglazed fractured surfaces that set the stage for the mid-twentieth century break with traditional concepts of clay, functional pots, and the potter. His early career in Bozeman, Montana, began with the influence of his instructor, Frances Senska, and was spent honing his skills as a potter making a large body of elegantly thrown and glazed bottle vases and dinnerware. 

Voulkos was an influential ceramics teacher. He founded two major ceramics programs: The first in 1954 at the Otis College of Art and Design, then called the Los Angeles County Art Institute, at which his work rapidly became abstract and sculptural; and the second, in 1958 at the University of California, Berkeley. His programs produced a roster of potters, many of whom went on to teach, and whose combined influence produced much of the iconic work of the 20^th century including Ken Price, Billy Al Bengston, Paul Soldner, Stephen De Stabler, Jun Kaneko, Larry Shep, Mac McClain (McCloud), John Mason, James Melchert, Michael Frimkess, Jerry Rothman, and Henry Takemoto.

These students highly individual work did not have a “Voulkos look”. The common thread was the approach to clay that allowed personal direct expression. The work produced during this period revolted against the traditional production of the vessel or container that formed the foundation of American pottery. During this time, Voulkos produced new forms that were aggressively asymmetrical, no longer needed to be useful, sometimes ‘crudely’ formed, and very controversial. Voulkos established a unique American ceramic aesthetic.

In 1962 Voulkos shifted his interest to metal, however, in 1973 he returned to ceramics creating an iconic series of 200 plates that were thrown for him to rework. While in the leather stage, Voulkos energized these thrown forms by embedding white porcelain bits, gashing, slashing and puncturing the surfaces.

His Abstract Expressionist ceramics were influenced by a trip in the summer of 1953 to New York City and to North Carolina . He was invited by Karen Karnes to give a three-week course at Black Mountain College, North Carolina. At Black Mountain he came into contact with Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, Merce Cunningham. and Joseph Albers amonug others. In New York he met with Franz Kline and Philip Guston and other expesssionist artists. In the fall of 1953, Voulkos returned to teaching at Otis College of Art, California. Voulkos is credited with pushing back the boundaries of clay, literally reinventing American ceramics. His work clearly crossed the traditional divide between ceramic as craft and as fine art.