The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 154

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES

Price, Kenneth
American; (b. 1935, Los Angeles, CA; d. 2012, Taos, NM)
1959 MFA New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, Alfred, NY
1956–1957 Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles County Art Institute), Los Angeles, CA
1956 BFA University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Ken Price is one of the few contemporary ceramic artists to make color a central component
of his sculptural works. Price is best known for his vibrant geode-like sculptures that feature
sections cut from the center revealing smooth surfaces of luminous color, a motif consistent

Barron, Stephanie, ed. Ken
Price Sculpture: A Retrospective.

throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Price studied with John Mason under Peter Voulkos at the

Los Angeles: Los Angeles

Los Angeles County Art Institute (later renamed Otis College of Art and Design) from 1956

County Museum of Art, 2012.

through 1957. Price abruptly left the program after refusing, along with other students, to execute
mosaic murals designed by Dean of the college Millard Sheets for the Home Savings and Loan

Kasl, Ronda. “Artifact and Fiction.“
In The Eloquent Object: The

buildings. Price went on to the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and

Evolution of American Art in

was the first student to complete the MFA in only one year. From 1960 to 1962, Price shared

Craft Media Since 1945, edited

a Venice, California, studio with Billy Al Bengston and through exhibitions at the famed Ferus

by Marcia Manhart and Tom

Gallery in Los Angeles became friends with Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, and Ed Moses. During

Manhart, 240–255. Tulsa: The

the 1960s, Price’s works were dubbed post-Surrealist as most of his work consisted of egg or

Philbrook Museum of Art, 1987.

dome-shaped sculptures that were lacquered with intensely bright colors. During the 1970s,

“Southern California Ceramics:

Price lived and worked in Taos, New Mexico, but moved back to Los Angeles in the early 1990s.

Ken Price.” American Ceramics

From 1991 to 2001 Price taught at the University of Southern California and began making

14, no. 4 (2004): 34–35.

rounded sculptural forms that featured colorfully speckled exteriors. The exhibition Ken Price
Sculpture: A Retrospective opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and was shown
at Dallas’ Nasher Sculpture Center and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013.

KENNETH PRICE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

The Void That's There
or Perhaps Isn't There

152

SELECTED REFERENCES: