The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 43

The work is “fired clay” as his dealer Matthew Marks likes

art. It had actually happened a few years before, but this

to refer to ceramics, but the surface is paint. Price was

was the official crowning. Just a pity he died a year earlier.

one of the most original colorists of his day. He moved
between glaze and paint or combined the two. This
allowed him to work both as a ceramicist and painter,
drawing from the

The next night the four of us had dinner together, drinks
at the loft, introductions to new arrivals in the collection
(we had not seen each
other for a while) and

palettes of both. In The

then on to a good Tribeca

Void he has layered

eatery. And while we did

colors and then skillfully

not speak about it, there

rubbed through layers

was a quiet understanding

to expose the scattered

that with Price’s show,

rainbow below.

a long journey we

When his show, Ken

shared had reached an

Price Sculpture: A

important destination.

Retrospective, arrived

Not the end of the

at the Metropolitan

Pam Hootkin at home.

Museum of Art

line—there is still a way
to go—but something

in 2013 (via the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

irrevocably positive had changed in the stature

and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas), Mark Del

of this material culture we loved so deeply.

Vecchio, the Hootkins and I were at the preview on
June 17. The exhibition, designed by architect Frank
Gehry, was exceptional and the Met had lit Price’s works
like glowing rare jewels, which in a sense they are.

I remember looking at the art, always beautifully lit and
installed (a respect the Hootkins always show their artists no
matter the cost or effort) and felt within this space a new
collective affirmation of this couple’s informed pursuit, their

The next day the expansive, rave review ran in The

fascination, loyalty, intuition, belief, taste, energy, scholarship,

New York Times (dwarfing that of James Turrell’s much

and investment of time and resources. Somehow the

anticipated installation at the Guggenheim) and welcomed

week was a coronation for the Hootkin collection as

Ken Price to the highest tier of American contemporary

well. I imagined I saw some of the figures smile.

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