The Visiting Artist Program welcomes Richard Notkin to the RMCAD campus. Notkin is a ceramic artist who works in Helena, Montana. Influenced by the tradition of Yixing pottery, his work is a vehicle for political commentary.

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We have stumbled into the 21st Century with the technologies of 'Star Wars' and the emotional maturity of cavemen. If we can’t find more creative solutions to solving worldwide social and political problems than sending young men and women to shred and incinerate one another’s flesh with weapons of ever increasing efficiency, we will not survive to celebrate the passage into the 22nd Century -- the problems of human civilization are far too complex to be solved by means of explosive devices. And our country and too many of our world’s nations are now in the hands of ideological thugs and fundamentalist tyrants who are fumbling the planet towards World War III.

I continue to make ceramic sculptures which reflect on the social and political dilemmas of our world. As André Malraux observed, “Art is a revolt against man's fate”. Need I say more?

--Richard Notkin

From the article about him in Ceramics Today:

American ceramist Richard Notkin studied under Ken Ferguson at the Kansas City Art Institute, earning a BFA in 1970 and under Robert Arneson at the University of California, where he earned an MFA in 1973. He is well known for his socio-critical tile mural ‘The Gift’ and his sculptural re-interpretations of the Yixing teapot, e.g. his ‘Curbside Teapot’ of 1986. Notkin is on the board of the Archie Bray Foundation. He has won several awards, including National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowships in 1981 and 1988, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 1991 and a Jerry Metcalf Foundation Artist Fellowship in 1999.