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Otis Clay in LA Times review



02/13/12

In his Feb 9 review, LA Times Art Critic Christopher Knight describes a "slow swirl at the edge of the Pacific," referring to the break in tradition known as "Otis clay." When Peter Voulkos came to Otis to start a ceramics program in 1957, he brought a method based on Abstract Expressionist concepts. He and his students transformed pottery from craft to art with slab-built and wheel-thrown works that revealed the gesture of the artist. As Billy Al Bengston explained, "Watching Pete manipulate clay was the most masculine and magical thing I had ever seen."

Postwar pottery flourished in Southern California, and these two exhibitions are fittingly part of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980: "Clay's Tectonic Shift" at Scripps College's Williamson Gallery and "Common Ground" at AMOCA, Pomona.

Alumni and former faculty included in the exhibitions are Robert Glover, Peter Voulkos, Billy Al Bengston (’56), Michael Frimkess (’57), John Mason (’57), Kenneth Price (’57), and Paul Soldner (’58).

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