The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 18

Every one is like a castaway’s corked bottle found afloat
in the sea; it contains a message, often deeply complex,
layered, literary, and footnoted in art history.

this, inevitably, narrative is either present or implied.
The main chronological focus of the exhibition
(although not the collection) is 1970 to 2000. All but
eleven objects in the exhibition are from that time.

and meshed them with the present. Despite the loud babble
of stories, different drawing and graphic styles, conceits, and
opinions that emanate from them, their unity of theme is
remarkable. This is one part of the bigger, interlocking puzzle.

Thematically it can be divided into four main parts: the

Ann Agee’s Tulip Vase (1994) is statuesque; nearly four

vessel, the painted figure, the earth figure, and “none

feet tall, and a powerful, busy exaggeration of this

of the above,” the smallest of part of the collection.

traditional Dutch form. Like many vessels, its shapes are
not arbitrary, but dictated by utility. The reason for the

THE VESSEL
The 14,000-year-old vessel tradition is the perfect
starting point. Some people collect pots for their
ceramic beauty and spend hours exalting over glaze
drips on a pot or entranced by the magical cobwebs

Their stems do not remain static, they twist and move into
new organic configurations and each stem devises its
own choreography. By having a separate spout for each
stem, each one can move according to its own whim.

of a crackle glaze stained with ink. That is a perfectly

The difficulty with the vessel being appreciated as art is

good approach to enjoy certain kinds of ceramic art.

that many viewers deal with the object simplistically. They

However, the pots that the Hootkins acquired are collected
for literal content. There is not a single pot on show that is
just pure form and glaze in the classic Asian model. Every
one is like a castaway’s corked bottle found afloat in the
sea; it contains a message, often deeply complex, layered,

think they know what it is (a vase, and they are correct),
but they do not often know what is says. In other media
such as painting or sculpture, dealers have been schooled
to look into the work for messages—irony, emotional
concepts, or defining elements of formal aesthetic power.

literary, and footnoted in art history. This does not make

Agee’s pot contains a daylong seminar of information.

them better than pots based on formal abstract constructs,

To begin with, tulip cultivation began in Persia and was

but it certainly makes the aesthetic experience different.

an important part of the Ottoman trade. Persia was the

All of the Hootkin pots host painting, carving, or some other
means of applying figuration to the surface. And except
for a few—Howard Kottler, Peter Gourfain, and Michael
Lucero—they are all time travelers. They have gone back in

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many spouts is that tulips have a life after being picked.

source of the ceramic pigment in the seventh century,
which the Chinese then used to make blue and white
porcelain (the most successful domestic product style
in the history of mankind and still holding this title).

the past, taken elements of a specific style of pottery from the

Imports of Chinese porcelains were at first costly, arriving

medium’s long history, returned with their archeological finds,

overland until the sea trade with Asia began. Europe did