The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 7

Entering Stephen and Pamela Hootkins’ loft today, to

states. The current exhibition entitled The Human

borrow a term from a younger generation, is truly an

Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection

awesome experience. Art is everywhere. One walks

of Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture does just that.

carefully. On my first visit, I was guided from room to
room by my gracious and enthusiastic hosts who were
eager to share how and why each piece had been
acquired. The passion for the work was palpable. Also

Ever since the 1960s when Robert Arneson rejected the
idea that ceramic artists should only produce utilitarian
or decorative objects, the field of ceramic sculpture has
proliferated. Clay is a wonderfully malleable material that

it quickly became apparent that each piece had been

unlike stone or metal readily surrenders itself to the artist’s

thoughtfully placed, with serious consideration given to

handling, whether this making is disciplined or emotional

relationships to other pieces in the immediate vicinity.

and uncontrolled. Hence it can be an excellent vehicle

Also interesting is the location of several pieces in specific

for self-expression and for the conveyance of emotions

living spaces. I am not sure how comfortable I would

through formal means. Also as clay had for decades

feel sleeping in a bed that is flanked by Michael Lucero’s

been deprecated as a craft medium by the proponents of

imposing Jesus on one side and Devil on the other, not

modernism, there were few critical constraints. The creative

to mention Judy Moonelis’ dismembered torsos hanging

freedom of clay was—and still is—exhilara ting. It is no

on the wall over the headboard. And although I have

wonder then that so many ceramic sculptors revel in the

been to the loft often since that first visit, each time I

creation of work that is expressionistic, primeval, irreverent,

am still struck by Judy Fox’s Saturn’s Son, a realistically

satirical, and, sometimes, even comically grotesque.

rendered baby boy, falling down from the stair rail
leading from the Hootkins’ kitchen to the terrace above.

Although I had met the Hootkins several years earlier
it was in 2001 when they offered to underwrite a

The Chazen Museum of Art’s mission is to provide direct

retrospective of Peter Gourfain’s work that I was organizing

access to original and quality visual art from around

that we realized that we shared a common interest in

the world, spanning from ancient to modern times. In

the visual arts, i.e., contemporary ceramic sculpture. This

addition to displays drawn from the museum’s permanent
collection, which today encompasses over 20,000 works,
the Chazen presents ten temporary exhibitions each year
with works of art borrowed from other museums, private
collectors, and artists. The purpose of these exhibitions
is to introduce our audiences to art that is thought
provoking and not typically accessible in the midwestern

realization launched a long-term friendship that has lasted
to this day. It did not hurt that Stephen was an alumnus
of the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a deep
affection for his alma mater. After graduating in 1964 with
a BS in Political Science, he moved to New York City
where he began a long and fruitful career as a financial
advisor with Bear Stearns and until his recent retirement,

Judy Fox, Saturn’s Son, 1991.

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