Photograph by Mimi Jacobs, photographer, 1971-1981. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

 Peter Voulkos
Birth Date: January 29, 1924
Death Date: February 16, 2002
Artist Gallery
Named Panagiotis Harry Voulkos by his Greek immigrant parents, he was born on January 29, 1924, in Bozeman, Montana. The G.I. Bill enabled him to study painting as an undergraduate and to discover ceramics. Voulkos soon gained national recognition for his large, well-crafted functional vessels. Then his career as a functional potter ended after he encountered the work of the Abstract Expressionists which caused him to reinvent ceramics. It was a decision that generated a lifetime of bold sculpture that had tremendous influence on the field of ceramics worldwide. “I have been asked many times, “What do you call yourself: Are you a painter, a potter, a sculptor, an artist, a craftsman, or what?” Usually about the last thing on my mind is what I am, or why I am what I am. I’m just a person trying to stay alive. I work with my hands. I don’t elevate art. It’s just the thing I have to do. I guess I was born that way. My grandmother used to say, “Just keep breathing; you’ll be all right.” And my mother would say, “If you work hard, you’ll be all right.” That’s just about what I do, keep breathing and working. I never set out to put labels on things or people, or myself. We can leave that job to the media. What I do is sometimes make pottery, sometimes sculpture. Sometimes I paint or make prints. Sometimes I work on my plumbing and sometimes I buy and sell real estate. It is all interesting to me. The valuations and distinctions are made between what is this and what is that, or who is that, because people are not aware. Too bad for them. If the energy isn’t there, calling it something worn’ make it something. A really fine Japanese tea bowl can give you the same kind of information and energy and excitement you can get from painting or sculpture. What is it? Why care? Just pick it up. Look at it. To some “artists,” “craftsman” is a dirty word. To me it can be great, depending on who is saying it. A good artist has to be a good craftsman. You’re a good craftsman, but you’re no artist. What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Peter Voulkos, whose gift for awakening in students and the ceramic field in general a passion for ceramic art and perhaps for living life to the fullest, died on February 6, 2002. At the time of his death he was conducting a ceramics workshop here in Ohio.