Ceramic artist Richard Notkin demonstrates slip casting for a teapot. Richard is featured in the Landscape episode of Craft in America, which premiered in May 2007 on PBS.
For more on Craft in America, visit www.craftinamerica.org.
All Craft in America programs are now viewable on the PBS iPhone/iPad app and online at video.pbs.org/program/craft-in-america.
To purchase DVDs: www.shoppbs.org/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3854896
Produced on the occasion of:
Richard Notkin – 2020
October 1–31, 2020
Russo Lee Gallery
Portland, Oregon
Artist's Statement
2020. If only this year could be erased from history as easily as unsolicited spam can be deleted from an email account.
For over 50 years, and as many one-person exhibitions, my quest as an artist has been a personal plea for sanity, an end to war and the elimination of the threat to humanity of nuclear weaponry. I believe that the works of artists, of all media, can—and has—made a difference in the trajectory of human history. This group of artworks is my latest contribution, however small, to that collective effort.
I turn 72 years of age at the end of this month. One week later, our nation goes to the polls to elect the next president, and determine the future of our democracy and the fate of human civilization. Nothing less than the survival of our children and grandchildren is at stake. My art expresses my passions and my views.
I hope this work has an impact on you. I hope it inspires you to vote.
Richard Notkin
October, 2020
Richard Notkin
BIO:
Richard Notkin is a full-time studio artist who lives and works in Helena, Montana. He received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1970, and an MFA from the University of California, Davis in 1973. Mr. Notkin has worked mainly in ceramics for more than thirty-nine years, averaging over one solo exhibition per year. His series of Yixing (China) inspired teapots and ceramic sculptures have been exhibited internationally and are in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan. He has held visiting artist positions and conducted over 250 workshops throughout the world. Among his awards, Richard has received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.
Artist’s Statement for “All Nations Have Their Moment of Foolishness”:
We have stumbled into the 21st Century with the technologies of ‘Star Wars’ and the emotional maturity of cavemen. If we can’t find more creative solutions to solving worldwide social and political problems than sending young men and women to shred and incinerate one another’s flesh with weapons of ever increasing efficiency, we will not survive to celebrate the passage into the 22nd Century — the problems of human civilization are far too complex to be solved by means of explosive devices. And our country and too many of our world’s nations are now in the hands of right wing thugs and fundamentalist tyrants who are fumbling the planet towards World War III.
I continue to make ceramic sculptures which reflect on the social and political dilemmas of our world. As André Malraux observed, “Art is a revolt against man’s fate”. Need I say more?
To find out more about John Michael Kohler Arts Center – Arts/Industry Program
To find out more about Richard Notkin
This video is for Artaxis conversations during National Clay Week 2019 – "Resources"
A studio artist who lives in Vaughn, Washington, Richard Notkin’s teapots and ceramic sculptures are in more than 70 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the Los Angeles County Museum ofArt; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
His awards include three visual arts fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. In 2008, Notkin was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council and awarded a Hoi Fellowship by the United States Artists Foundation.
Since 2011, the International Mokuhanga Conference has been held every three years (Kyoto, Tokyo and Honolulu/Holualoa) at venues where the possibilities of traditional Japanese woodblock techniques can be explored among artists and adapted to new modes of representation. The 2017 conference was held at the East-West Center and University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa Art Building before moving over the Big Island of Hawaiʻi where the Donkey Mill Art Center provided space in Holualoa.
Features the work and words of Richard Notkin of Helena, Montana. From a series of films about the Montana clay community. Funded in-part by a Big Sky Grant from the Montana Film Office.
Filmmaker, Geoffrey Pepos
Producer, Cynthia Knutsen
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Masterpieces at Midday: Richard Notkin, Art as Therapy for our Times with Windgate Curatorial Intern Kevin Cline. Presented on Zoom on May 21, 2020.
Masterpieces at Midday is an ongoing conversation series hosted by museum staff, ASU faculty, students and community members that delve into the museum’s permanent collection. Each presentation will focus on a distinct artist and/or theme related to the artworks in our Art in Focus Gallery. Please feel free to bring your own lunch and stay for extended conversations after the presentation.
Join the Donkey Mill Art Center's Ceramics Studio Coordinator, Jake Boggs, as he sits down with ceramicist, Richard Notkin, for an in-depth discussion about Richard’s illustrious career in the ceramic arts, his philosophy of making, his position on politics in art, and his passion for detail.
Richard Notkin is a full-time studio artist who lives and works in Vaughn, Washington. He received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1970, and an MFA from the University of California, Davis in 1973. Richard has worked mainly in ceramics for over fifty years, averaging over one solo exhibition per year. His series of Yixing (China) inspired teapots and ceramic sculptures have been exhibited internationally and are in more than 70 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan.
Notkin has held visiting artist positions and conducted over 350 workshops throughout the world. Among his awards, Richard has received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.
In 2008, Notkin was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council, and was also awarded the Hoi Fellowship by the United States Artists Foundation. He 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.
Mahalo nui to Richard Notkin for his generosity of time, knowledge and inspiration; to the Mill's Ceramics Studio Coordinator, Jake Boggs; and to Bobby Howard for his work filming and editing this program.
About the Donkey Mill Art Center
Donkey Mill Art Center is the home of Hōlualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art education organization. The Donkey Mill Art Center is a place of convergence for the exploration of arts and culture to inform, inspire and strengthen individual and collective well-being. For more information, visit donkeymillartcenter.org or call (808) 322-3362
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