Copied
Peter Voulkos, Hole in One, 1978, ceramic, 43 1⁄2 x 16 1⁄2 in. (110.5 x 41.9 cm) diam., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin, 2005.5.73, © 1978, Voulkos Family Trust
Copied
Artwork Details
- Title
- Hole in One
- Artist
- Date
- 1978
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 43 1⁄2 x 16 1⁄2 in. (110.5 x 41.9 cm) diam.
- Copyright
- © 1978, Voulkos Family Trust
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- ceramic
- Classifications
- Object Number
- 2005.5.73
Artwork Description
Voulkos drew inspiration from the abstract expressionist painters he met in the early 1950s, translating their energy and philosophy into his clay work and exploding conventional boundaries of art and craft. He is known for bravura demonstrations--as much performance as craft--in which he would attack massive quantities of clay, tearing and gouging at it before firing the resulting forms. Totemic "stacks" like Hole in One evince his raw masculine energy and his embrace of chance--two themes characteristic of his work.
Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery, 2019
Gallery Label
Voulkos was studying painting on the G.I. Bill when he tried ceramics and "took to clay like a duck to water." He thought that clay was a living thing and insisted that "you gotta respond to that." Voulkos gave workshops on the Berkeley campus—lubricated with whiskey for the graduate students and jug wine for the undergrads—improvising and feeding off the crowd like a jazz musician. The burnt, punctured, and torn surfaces of Hole in One capture the bravura performance that Voulkos gave in the studio and that helped make ceramics a respectable art for "real men." He fired his works for several days in an anagama kiln, an ancient design that left unpredictable burns and breaks in the pottery. A work like Hole in One reflects the macho heroics of postwar American artists and, at the same time, evokes monuments and tomb figures crafted by Asian potters thousands of years ago.Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006
Exhibitions
November 13, 2015–March 6, 2022
Connections is the Renwick Gallery’s dynamic ongoing permanent collection presentation, featuring more than 80 objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.