The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 141
Frimkess, Michael
American; (b. 1937, Los Angeles, CA; lives in Venice, CA)
Studied with Peter Voulkos and William Green at the Otis College of Art and Design,
Los Angeles, CA
Michael Frimkess was one of the youngest artists ever to study with ceramics master
SELECTED REFERENCES:
Peter Voulkos at the Otis Art Institute, now the Otis College of Art and Design in Los
Karlstrom, Paul. “Oral History
Angeles, California. Influenced by the practical training he received at a ceramic
Interview with Michael and
factory in Southern Italy in the mid-1950s and by the ancient ceramics he studied at the
Magdalena Frimkess, 2001
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frimkess’ main focus throughout his career has been the
March 8-April 17.” Nanette
L. Laitman Documentation
vessel. Frimkess infuses historical forms such as Chinese ginger jars and Greek vases
Project for Craft and Decorative
with contemporary subject matter. Since the 1970s, Frimkess has struggled with multiple
Arts in American, Archives of
sclerosis and often collaborates with his wife, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, a Venezuelan
painter and sculptor who inventively paints the vessels that her husband has thrown
and fired. Michael and Magdalena’s narrative vessels, which they began making
together in the mid-1960s, explore social and political issues through the ceramic form
American Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, DC.
Ostermann, Mathias. The Ceramic
Narrative. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
melding together a traditional throwing style with trenchant social commentary. Michael
Frimkess’ work is represented in major museum collections including the Museum of
Arts and Design, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Ruth
Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, California; Arizona State
University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MICHAEL FRIMKESS WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
The Marriage
of Auntie Susana
Burstein, Joanne. “The
Levin, Elaine. The History of
Frimkesses.” American Ceramics
American Ceramics, 1607
1, no. 4 (Fall 1982): 56–57.
to the Present. New York:
Clark, Garth. American Potters:
Harry N. Abrams, 1988.
The Work of Twenty Modern
Peterson, Susan. “A Matter of
Masters. New York: Watson
Influence.“ Ceramics: Art and
Guptill Publications, 1981.
Perception no. 37 (1999): 55–58.
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