Kenneth Price
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Price is an American ceramic artist and printmaker who was born in Los Angeles, California in 1935. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute
in Los Angeles, before receiving his BFA degree from the University of Southern California
in 1956. He continued his studies at Chouinard Art Institute
in 1957 and received an MFA degree from New York State College of Ceramics
at Alfred University
in 1959. Kenneth Price studied ceramics with Peter Voulkos
and was awarded a Tamarind Fellowship.
He is best known for his abstract shapes constructed from fired clay. Typically, they are not glazed, but intricately painted with multiple layers of bright acrylic paint and then sanded down to reveal the colors beneath. Ken Price lives and works in Venice, California and Taos, New Mexico
. He is represented by the Matthew Marks Gallery
, New York and Xavier Hufkens
, Brussels.
,_1988,_metropolitan_museum_of_art.jpg)
Price was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Price’s earliest aspirations were to be an artist, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be an artist. Even when I was a kid I would make drawings and little books, and cartoon
s..,” he states. Price enrolled in his first art ceramics course at Santa Monica City College in 1954, where he quickly embraced a formal craft tradition as espoused by Marguerite Wildenhain
. He subsequently studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, before receiving his BFA degree from the University of Southern California in 1956.
In the 1950s Price lived along the Pacific coastline, where his interest in surfing
and Mexican pottery
developed. During surfing trips in Southern California
, Price and his friends, “always made a point of hitting the curio stores in [Tijuana], because they had great pottery. …just looking was a great education in earthenware pottery.” Price’s ceramic work at USC could be characterized as functional vessels derived from a folk pottery tradition.
As a student at USC, Price spent time visiting the ceramics studio at the Otis College of Art and Design
(then known as the Los Angeles County Art Institute) where ceramic artist Peter Voulkos
was teaching. Price has often cited Voulkos as his strongest single influence as a student. After finishing his degree at USC, Price spent a portion of the next year as a graduate student at Otis. There he studied (under Voulkos) with Billy Al Bengston
, John Mason
, Mike Frimkess, Paul Soldner
, Henry Takemoto and Jerry Rothman. Price writes about the group at Otis: “We’ve been cited as the people who broke away from the crafts hierarchy and substituted so-called ‘total freedom!’ Actually we were a group of people who were committed to clay as a material and wanted to use it in ways that had something to do with our time and place.”
In 1958, Price left Otis for Alfred University
(with a six month detour in the Army Reserves
). “I went to Alfred to try and develop some low-fire, brightly colored glazes, but also to try and get away from the influence of Voulkos, which was very strong on me.” During his time at Alfred, Price was able to formulate some of the glazes he desired, using a lead base. In 1959, Price returned to Los Angeles having received an MFA in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
Price describes Los Angeles upon his return and the beginnings of the L.A. art scene: “When I started out in L.A. in the late fifties there was no art scene at all really. I mean there was an art scene in New York, but there wasn’t one in L.A. There were hardly any galleries. The museum was downtown and it didn’t endorse contemporary art
. And there were only about three viable art publications. The local newspaper critics didn’t like us at all. There weren’t any collectors, really very few. We made few sales, and for little money when we made them. But the people I knew were totally committed. And so was I. I was confused about a lot of things at that time, but not about being an artist. I knew that’s what I had to be. And then later, around the mid-sixties, the whole scene cooked up: galleries, museums, foundations, art schools, and you know, lots more artists.”
Price’s first solo show came at the Ferus Gallery
in 1960 where he quickly became part of a developing art movement that included artists such as Larry Bell
, Billy Al Bengston
, John Altoon
, John McCracken
, Robert Irwin
and Ed Ruscha, among many others. Price would have three solo shows during the short time Ferus was open, and by the mid-sixties Price was fixture in the west coast art scene. Aside from six months Price spent in Japan in 1962, Price would remain in Los Angeles until 1970, when he and his wife, Happy, relocated to Taos, New Mexico.
Having arrived in Taos, Price’s attention shifted to Mexican folk pottery once again (as it had in the 1950s). “After settling in Taos, Price began to identify with the folk artists who make roadside monuments and the artisans who produce pottery in villages all over Mexico. He determined to make a body of work, using commercial material and readily available preparations, that was true in spirit to the folk/cottage industry sensibility, that was ‘easy, offhand but utterly assured characteristic’ of ‘low art’ pottery.” The resulting project, “Happy’s Curios,” which Price spent nearly six years working on (the bulk of the decade), culminated with a show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978.
During the early and late 1970s (before and after the “Happy’s Curios” project) Price developed his signature “geometric cup” series.
In the early 1980s (around 1982), Ken and family moved from Taos to Southeastern Massachusetts. “We wanted to get out of Taos for a variety of reasons, and had visited a friend in Massachusetts who lived right on the Atlantic Ocean. It was really beautiful, so we moved there and stayed for about eight years.” Working in his studio near New Bedford, Massachusetts, Price concentrated on developing his sculptural forms, and allowed his production of cup forms to wane.
Price returned to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, after spending twenty years away. In 1992, he was given his first retrospective, at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1993 Price joined the Faculty at USC, as an art ceramics professor – and remained an instructor there for ten years. Currently, he is living and working in both Venice, California and Taos, New Mexico. His son, Jackson Price, serves him as an assistant.
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
in Los Angeles, before receiving his BFA degree from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
in 1956. He continued his studies at Chouinard Art Institute
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
in 1957 and received an MFA degree from New York State College of Ceramics
New York State College of Ceramics
The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred is a statutory college of the State University of New York . It is divided into the School of Art and Design and the Inamori School of Engineering. Although the School of Engineering is nominally administered by NYSCC, the...
at Alfred University
Alfred University
Alfred University is a small, comprehensive university in the Village of Alfred in Western New York, USA, an hour and a half south of Rochester and two hours southeast of Buffalo. Alfred has an undergraduate population of around 2,000, and approximately 300 graduate students...
in 1959. Kenneth Price studied ceramics with Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos popular name of Panagiotis Voulkos, was an American artist of Greek descent. He is known for his Abstract Expressionist ceramic sculptures, which crossed the traditional divide between ceramic crafts and fine art....
and was awarded a Tamarind Fellowship.
He is best known for his abstract shapes constructed from fired clay. Typically, they are not glazed, but intricately painted with multiple layers of bright acrylic paint and then sanded down to reveal the colors beneath. Ken Price lives and works in Venice, California and Taos, New Mexico
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
. He is represented by the Matthew Marks Gallery
Matthew Marks Gallery
Matthew Marks is an art gallery located in the New York City neighborhood of Chelsea. Founded in the early 1990s by Matthew Marks, it specializes in modern and contemporary art in a variety of media: including painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, film, and drawings and prints...
, New York and Xavier Hufkens
Xavier Hufkens
Xavier Hufkens is a European gallery owner and dealer in contemporary art. Since its founding in 1987, his gallery has been committed to the long term representation of established, mid-career and emerging artists. The gallery deals in a combination of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography,...
, Brussels.
Biography
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s..,” he states. Price enrolled in his first art ceramics course at Santa Monica City College in 1954, where he quickly embraced a formal craft tradition as espoused by Marguerite Wildenhain
Marguerite Wildenhain
Marguerite Wildenhain , born Marguerite Friedlaender, was a French-born American ceramic artist, educator and author. In the second half of her life, having emigrated to the U.S...
. He subsequently studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, before receiving his BFA degree from the University of Southern California in 1956.
In the 1950s Price lived along the Pacific coastline, where his interest in surfing
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
and Mexican pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
developed. During surfing trips in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
, Price and his friends, “always made a point of hitting the curio stores in [Tijuana], because they had great pottery. …just looking was a great education in earthenware pottery.” Price’s ceramic work at USC could be characterized as functional vessels derived from a folk pottery tradition.
As a student at USC, Price spent time visiting the ceramics studio at the Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college in Los Angeles, California.The school's programs, accredited by WASC and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, include four-year BFA degrees in illustration, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior...
(then known as the Los Angeles County Art Institute) where ceramic artist Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos popular name of Panagiotis Voulkos, was an American artist of Greek descent. He is known for his Abstract Expressionist ceramic sculptures, which crossed the traditional divide between ceramic crafts and fine art....
was teaching. Price has often cited Voulkos as his strongest single influence as a student. After finishing his degree at USC, Price spent a portion of the next year as a graduate student at Otis. There he studied (under Voulkos) with Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston is an American artist and sculptor who lives and works in Venice, California. He was educated at Los Angeles City College Los Angeles, CA , California College of Arts & Crafts Oakland, CA , and the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA .After seeing the work of Jasper Johns at the...
, John Mason
John Mason (artist)
John Mason is a contemporary American artist. From very early on, Mason’s work focused on exploring the physical properties of clay and its “extreme plasticity.” Mason is recognized for his focus and steady investigation of mathematical concepts relating to rotation, symmetry, and modules as well...
, Mike Frimkess, Paul Soldner
Paul Soldner
Paul Soldner was an American ceramic artist.- Biography :...
, Henry Takemoto and Jerry Rothman. Price writes about the group at Otis: “We’ve been cited as the people who broke away from the crafts hierarchy and substituted so-called ‘total freedom!’ Actually we were a group of people who were committed to clay as a material and wanted to use it in ways that had something to do with our time and place.”
In 1958, Price left Otis for Alfred University
Alfred University
Alfred University is a small, comprehensive university in the Village of Alfred in Western New York, USA, an hour and a half south of Rochester and two hours southeast of Buffalo. Alfred has an undergraduate population of around 2,000, and approximately 300 graduate students...
(with a six month detour in the Army Reserves
Military reserve force
A military reserve force is a military organization composed of citizens of a country who combine a military role or career with a civilian career. They are not normally kept under arms and their main role is to be available to fight when a nation mobilizes for total war or to defend against invasion...
). “I went to Alfred to try and develop some low-fire, brightly colored glazes, but also to try and get away from the influence of Voulkos, which was very strong on me.” During his time at Alfred, Price was able to formulate some of the glazes he desired, using a lead base. In 1959, Price returned to Los Angeles having received an MFA in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
Price describes Los Angeles upon his return and the beginnings of the L.A. art scene: “When I started out in L.A. in the late fifties there was no art scene at all really. I mean there was an art scene in New York, but there wasn’t one in L.A. There were hardly any galleries. The museum was downtown and it didn’t endorse contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
. And there were only about three viable art publications. The local newspaper critics didn’t like us at all. There weren’t any collectors, really very few. We made few sales, and for little money when we made them. But the people I knew were totally committed. And so was I. I was confused about a lot of things at that time, but not about being an artist. I knew that’s what I had to be. And then later, around the mid-sixties, the whole scene cooked up: galleries, museums, foundations, art schools, and you know, lots more artists.”
Price’s first solo show came at the Ferus Gallery
Ferus Gallery
The Ferus Gallery was a contemporary art gallery operating from 1957-1966. In 1957 it was located at 736-A North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California...
in 1960 where he quickly became part of a developing art movement that included artists such as Larry Bell
Larry Bell (artist)
Larry Bell is a contemporary American artist and sculptor. He lives and works in Taos, New Mexico, and maintains a studio in Venice, California. From 1957 to 1959 he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles as a student of Robert Irwin, Richards Ruben, Robert Chuey, and Emerson Woelfer...
, Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston is an American artist and sculptor who lives and works in Venice, California. He was educated at Los Angeles City College Los Angeles, CA , California College of Arts & Crafts Oakland, CA , and the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA .After seeing the work of Jasper Johns at the...
, John Altoon
John Altoon
John Altoon , an American artist, was born in Los Angeles, California to immigrant Armenian parents. From 1947–1949 he attended the Otis Art Institute, from 1947 to 1950 he also attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and in 1950 the Chouinard Art Institute. Altoon was a prominent...
, John McCracken
John McCracken
John Harvey McCracken was a contemporary artist who lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico and New York.- Education/teaching :...
, Robert Irwin
Robert Irwin (artist)
Robert Irwin is an American Installation artist. He lives and works in San Diego, California.-Beginnings:Robert Irwin was born in 1928 in Long Beach, California to Robert Irwin and Goldie Anderberg Irwin...
and Ed Ruscha, among many others. Price would have three solo shows during the short time Ferus was open, and by the mid-sixties Price was fixture in the west coast art scene. Aside from six months Price spent in Japan in 1962, Price would remain in Los Angeles until 1970, when he and his wife, Happy, relocated to Taos, New Mexico.
Having arrived in Taos, Price’s attention shifted to Mexican folk pottery once again (as it had in the 1950s). “After settling in Taos, Price began to identify with the folk artists who make roadside monuments and the artisans who produce pottery in villages all over Mexico. He determined to make a body of work, using commercial material and readily available preparations, that was true in spirit to the folk/cottage industry sensibility, that was ‘easy, offhand but utterly assured characteristic’ of ‘low art’ pottery.” The resulting project, “Happy’s Curios,” which Price spent nearly six years working on (the bulk of the decade), culminated with a show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978.
During the early and late 1970s (before and after the “Happy’s Curios” project) Price developed his signature “geometric cup” series.
In the early 1980s (around 1982), Ken and family moved from Taos to Southeastern Massachusetts. “We wanted to get out of Taos for a variety of reasons, and had visited a friend in Massachusetts who lived right on the Atlantic Ocean. It was really beautiful, so we moved there and stayed for about eight years.” Working in his studio near New Bedford, Massachusetts, Price concentrated on developing his sculptural forms, and allowed his production of cup forms to wane.
Price returned to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, after spending twenty years away. In 1992, he was given his first retrospective, at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1993 Price joined the Faculty at USC, as an art ceramics professor – and remained an instructor there for ten years. Currently, he is living and working in both Venice, California and Taos, New Mexico. His son, Jackson Price, serves him as an assistant.
Sources
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Robert Irwin―Kenneth Price, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1966.
- Price, Kenneth, Ken Price, Houston, Texas, Menil Collection, Houston Fine Art Press, 1992.
- Price, Kenneth, Ken Price, Happy's Curios”, Los Angeles, The Museum, 1978.
- University of California, Irvine, Five Los Angeles Sculptors: Larry Bell, Tony DeLap, David Gray, John McCracken, Kenneth Price, University of California, Irvine, 1966
External links
- Ken Price at Brooke Alexander Gallery
- Ken Price at MOMAMomaMoma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
, NY - Ken Price at Xavier HufkensXavier HufkensXavier Hufkens is a European gallery owner and dealer in contemporary art. Since its founding in 1987, his gallery has been committed to the long term representation of established, mid-career and emerging artists. The gallery deals in a combination of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography,...
, Brussels - Ken Price at the Matthew Marks Gallery
- Ken Price at the L.A. Louver gallery