The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 146

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES

Kottler, Howard
American; (b. 1930, Cleveland, OH; d. 1989, Seattle, WA)
1964 PhD (ceramics) The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
1957 MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomsfield, MI
1956 MA (ceramics) The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
1952 BA The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Originally intending to pursue a degree in optometry at Ohio State, Howard

SELECTED REFERENCES:

Kottler switched his major to ceramic art after one class in clay. He completed

Clark, Garth, and Cindi

an MA in ceramics in 1956 writing his thesis on Renaissance apothecary jars. A

Strauss. Shifting Paradigms

scholarship from the Cranbrook Academy of Art enabled Kottler to pursue an

The Garth Clark & Mark Del

MFA degree. While at Cranbrook, Kottler studied under Maija Grotell and in

Vecchio Collection. New

1958 Kottler received a Fulbright grant to Helsinki, Finland, to study with Kyllikki

Haven: Yale University Press;

Salmenharra at the Arabia Ceramics factory. After receiving his PhD in ceramics at
Ohio State, Kottler began teaching at the University of Washington in 1964 where

Houston: The Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, 2012.
Failing, Patricia. “Howard Kottler:

his students included Michael Lucero and Anne Currier. During the 1960s, Kottler’s

Conceptualist and Purveyor

work combined unlikely materials such as fur and ceramics, but his decal plates

of Psychosexual Allusions.”

of the 1970s bolstered Kottler’s reputation 2f