“A pot, for me, is a vessel that has an opening that you can see inside, that can receive. If it is a good pot, it also has some sculptural qualities involved with space and form. Most of the forms I make refer to pottery. Maybe that makes me a potter…but maybe the best label is abstract expressionist, if that means that I have to get my hands into my material before I know exactly where I am going.

I am not a conceptual artist. I can’t just sit there and think of an idea. Most of it comes out of my hands.... I have always used whatever comes to hand, or into my head, that makes sense in my own work, that I can get some energy from.

Technique is probably the most difficult tool to master because it is a necessity but can easily become an obsession. Nothing can drown our new ideas as fast as an obsession with technique. Technique is nothing if you have nothing to say.”

-Peter Voulkos, a statement from 1982

Peter Voulkos (1924 -2002) is regarded as the founding figure of what became known as the American “clay revolution”. Vessel: Formative Work by Peter Voulkos is an exhibition that features work from the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection. The pieces on view in our Mungas/Volk Gallery relate to the formative works created by Peter Voulkos as a traditional potter.

This exhibition is curated by Nicole Evans, Curator of Art at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. Exhibitions presented by Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art are supported in part by the Montana Arts Council a state agency funded by the State of Montana, Humanities Montana, National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by museum members and the citizens of Cascade County, and generous support from Montana Federal Credit Union and D.A. Davidson. We are grateful to Wells Fargo Bank of Great Falls for gifting this Peter Voulkos Collection to Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in 2018.