Richard Notkin Artist Talk - 11/16

Notkin, Richard (b. 1948, Chicago, IL, lives in Vaughn, Washington). He received his BFA in Ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1970 under Ken Ferguson and Victor Babu, and his MFA from the University of California/Davis in 1973 under Robert Arneson. A full-time studio artist, Notkin’s teapots, ceramic sculptures and tile murals are visual explorations into social and political commentary. Through the 1960's, 70's and 80's, when large scale abstract expressionist vessels and gestural ceramic sculptures were the rage in contemporary American ceramics, Notkin worked with a tightly controlled, high degree of craftsmanship, creating works which were often criticized as being too small, tight and precious. He took this as a compliment.

He is perhaps most known for his series of unglazed stoneware teapots, inspired by the remarkable Yixing wares of China (circa 1500 AD to the present), but consciously maintaining a separate cultural identity, "reflecting the current dilemmas of our contemporary human civilization".

 

For over five decades, his work has been featured in 50 one person exhibitions, over 800 group exhibitions internationally, and is in more than 75 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan. In 2007, Notkin was a featured artist in the “Landscape” segment of the premier of the “Craft in America” series on PBS. Among his numerous awards are three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. In 2008, Notkin was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council, and awarded a USA Hoi Fellowship by the United States Artists Foundation.

 

 Notkin is also the recipient of
the Meloy Stevenson Award from the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT, and the Honorary Membership Award from
NCECA, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, in 2014.