The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 45

AN INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN
AND PAMELA HOOTKIN
BY R USSELL PANCZENKO

M A R C H , 2 014

Russell Panczenko: Let’s start with a basic question.

pieces from the show. We walked in and were immediately

When did you start collecting?

drawn to the work. It was not planned; it just happened.

Stephen Hootkin: We started collecting in the early 1980s.
RP: Did you then talk about it when you got ho me
Pamela Hootkin: Stephen and I are both very visual people.

and consciously decide that ceramics were what you

Without deep pockets early in our career, we didn’t have

wanted to focus on?

a big budget for art. As we went to galleries, it seemed
that our tastes in two-dimensional art were not always in
sync. One afternoon we happened to be walking through
Soho and stopped in a gallery called Convergence,
which was owned by Don Thomas and Jorge Cao. There
was a show of work by Bruce Lenore. He was a young
man from RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] who
made vessel forms, beautifully glazed raku. We walked
through the show and at the end we compared notes
and found we liked the same piece. We realized that for
some reason—whether it was the three-dimensional form,
whether it was the ceramic medium or the combination
of the two—we both reacted visually to the same thing.
We loved the color, loved the depth of the glazes, the
forms, and the material. We bought a piece from the
show, which we still have. That’s how we started.
RP: Was it just fortuitous that you were in a

PH: I think what we reflected on was how nice it was

that we found something we both reacted to in the same
way. I don’t think we really thought, “Oh, ceramics will be
our mission.” I think it was serendipitous. It was a lovely
day, we walked in, we had a gallery experience, and we
found a piece of art that we both liked. It happened to be
a clay piece. It happened to be a vessel form. It was just
a piece that we acquired and discovered that we enjoyed
living with it. We subsequently became very friendly with
the gallery owners and continued to visit Convergence.
As we became more frequent visitors to the gallery
we began to understand a little more. We educated
ourselves as we saw more of the field and the medium.
RP: What was your second acquisition?
SH: We continued to frequent Convergence for a

while. Every couple of months when they would have

gallery with ceramic art? Did you also look at

a new show, we would stop in. One of our subsequent

sculpture, paintings, and other media?

purchases was a small abstract cup by Olga Bravo. We

SH: While we visited galleries that had sculpture and

paintings, our start with ceramics really was just fortuitous.

think of that as the beginning of our collecting. Soon after,
I believe, we started visiting the Garth Clark Gallery.

We happened to be, as Pam said, walking down the

PH: At the time, Convergence was a SoHo gallery

street in SoHo and looked in the window and saw some

that not only sold ceramics, but also fiber, wood, and

The Hootkins in their Tribeca loft with one
of Three Vases (ca. 1983) by Betty Woodman.

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