American+Gothic+Playmate+Conditioner

Date: 1972
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/2006/2006.27.3_1a.jpg?itok=jDQekZKj width="333" height="337" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/american-gothic-playmate-conditioner-76365"]] || Artist: **American Gothic: Playmate Conditioner**

Artist: **Howard Kottler** Born: Cleveland, Ohio 1930 Died: Seattle, Washington 1989

Medium: commercial porcelain plate and decal with silver luster glaze Dimensions: 7/8 x 10 5/8 in. (2.2 x 27.0 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Helen Williams Drutt English

Accession: 2006.27.3 || Howard Kottler, a former University of Washington professor, is known for rejecting traditional studio ceramic practices that emphasized and valued hand-made objects.
 * Biographical Information: **

Contrary to the studio potters who wedged clay and calculated glazes for plate-making, Kottler created his works with mass-produced, store-bought plates and commercial decals.

The decals he chose included reproductions of well-known images such as Leonardo DaVinci’s The Last Supper and Grant Wood’s American Gothic. Kottler altered these images, often with political intent, by cutting and combining the decals and then affixing them to inexpensive white porcelain plates, which he purchased in bulk.

Howard Kottler was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Ohio State University in Columbus for both undergraduate and graduate school, and received his B.A. in 1952, M.A. in 1956, and his Ph.D. in 1964. Kottler also received an M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1957. While completing his doctoral degree, Kottler taught at Ohio State. In 1964, he accepted a position at the University of Washington in Seattle; he was a professor with the School of Art until his death in 1989. Kottler, along with Patti Warashina, turned the ceramic-sculpture program at University of Washington into one of the most successful. Kottler has had significant influence upon the work of many ceramic-sculpture artists including Michael Lucero, Mark Burns, and Ann Currier. His work has been exhibited extensively (both in group and solo shows) during his career except for a six year period in the early 1980s when he temporarily withdrew from public shows. Kottler's early work consists of traditional stoneware pieces. Beginning in the late 1960s until his death, Kottler was concerned with the impact and concept behind than with the functionality of his pieces. His vessel forms and sculptures often have elaborate surface treatment and are often assemblages of molds, decals, ceramic "junk" pieces, and anything else that inspired Kottler.

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **