Richard Notkin Archives -

52 for 150: What’s So Special About Ken Ferguson?

For week 16 of our Kansas sesquicentennial series, we're focusing on ceramist Ken Ferguson (1938-2004), former Professor and Chair of the ceramics department at Kansas City Art Institute for over thirty years.

"In 1981 Ferguson was voted one of the twelve greatest living potters in a readers' survey by Ceramics Monthly magazine. His students included many successful contemporary ceramists including Richard Notkin" [1], our juror for this year's Topeka Competition 30. "As a graduate student at Alfred University, resident potter and studio manager at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, and through years of teaching, Ferguson mastered the craft of functional pottery, developing formidable skills on the wheel and in handling glazes that integrally informed his work." [2]

Every object has a story, and stories build history. To celebrate 150 years of Kansas statehood we're featuring 52 objects (or collections of related objects)—something new each week throughout the year—from the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library's 130-year-old special, and permanent collections, that represent our collective state history and cultural diversity.

Our collections are available for teachers, students, researchers and general interest, and we hope this online video program will provide insight into what's so "special" about Special Collections. Your library's commitment to collecting art and preserving local history makes it possible for users today and in the future to have immediate access to invaluable research material and cultural artifacts.

To make an appointment to see work by Ken Ferguson, or get help finding books and videos related to him and his work, call or stop by the Sabatini Gallery (785-580-4515). We're located on your right just beyond the Library rotunda entrance.

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Ceramic artist Richard Notkin demonstrates slip casting

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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

Richard Notkin – John Michael Kohler Arts Center – Arts/Industry Program

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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"

Richard Notkin Keynote IMC Hawaii 2017

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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.

Meet The Artist: Richard Notkin

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All rights reserved. ©2009 Museum of Glass
Visiting Artist Residency: Richard Notkin
Dates of the residency: August 12 – 16, 2009
All images courtesy of the artist.
Directed by Derek Klein
Museum of Glass Executive Director: J. Timothy Close
Museum of Glass Hot Shop Team: Benjamin Cobb, Gabe Feenan , Alex Stisser, and Sarah Gilbert

The Visiting Artist Residency program is sponsored by
the Courtyard by Marriott -Tacoma Downtown

Ceramic artist Richard Notkin, LANDSCAPE episode

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www.craftinamerica.org. Ceramic artist Richard Notkin segment. LANDSCAPE episode PBS premiere: May 30, 2007.

For more on Craft in America, visit www.craftinamerica.org.
All Craft in America programs are now viewable on www.craftinamerica.org, the PBS iPhone/iPad app and video.pbs.org/program/craft-in-america.
To purchase DVDs: www.shoppbs.org