Little Big Horn
Little Big Horn, 1959, Peter Voulkos. Polychromed stoneware. 62 x 40 x 40 in. The Oakland Museum of California, gift of the Art Guild in memory of Helen Schilling Stelzner. © Mrs. Ann Voulkos, Voulkos Family Trust. Image courtesy of the Voulkos & Co. Catalogue Project. Photo by Joe Schopplein
On View at the Getty Center: Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970
Peter Voulkos was instrumental in the transformation of ceramics from a traditional craft to a sculptural art form. One way he did this was to dramatically increase the size of his ceramic objects. To work on an enormous scale, Voulkos borrowed structural methods from architecture and devised a way to balance and cantilever large slabs of clay around a cylindrical core. By 1959, he was creating complex monumental pieces like Little Big Horn, which was formed from a series of faceted planes that appear disjointed rather than whole. Voulkos magnified this fragmented effect by applying blue, white, and gray glazes to the work’s individual planes.
Explore the Archive
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Video: Irving Blum, John Mason, and Billy Al Bengston speak about the work of Peter Voulkos, 2010–11
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Peter Voulkos in his studio on Glendale Boulevard in Los Angeles, 1959. Image courtesy of the Voulkos & Co. Catalogue Project
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Peter Voulkos's exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, 1958. Courtesy of the Voulkos & Co. Catalogue Project
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John Mason and Peter Voulkos photographing a sculpture outside their shared studio on Glendale Boulevard in Los Angeles, ca. 1959. Courtesy of the Voulkos & Co. Catalogue Project
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Peter Voulkos, John Mason, and Paul Soldner at Otis Art Institute (now called Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, 1956. Image courtesy of Soldner Enterprises and Stephanie Soldner Sullivan
