Undated
VOULKOS 73
The inscription includes 73, identifying the pictured Vase as 1973.
porcelain
Illustrated object: Vase.
Pottery & porcelain
Peter Voulkos signature
Peter Voulkos signature includes incised “Voulkos” on stoneware. Peter Voulkos made porcelain, ceramic sculpture, and plates and chargers.
- Active years
- c. 1951–2002
- Country
- United States
- Products
- porcelain, ceramic sculpture, plates and chargers, bottles and vessels, bronze sculpture, paintings
- Marks
- 23
His ceramic career extended from the early 1950s until his death in 2002; 1924–2002 are his life dates.
What to look for
- Look for the full surname VOULKOS, painted around a foot or incised into the clay. Handwritten letterforms vary; compare the whole signature and object with a dated collection example.
- A suffix such as 73, 75, 78, 82 or 98 can be part of a dated signature. Distinguish the object’s date from the broader period in which a signature style was used.
- Inspect throwing, joins, cutting and surface treatment as well as the signature. Early functional bottles and later abstract stacks belong to different phases of the same career.
Dated marks & timeline
23 marks
Undated
VOULKOS 98
The inscription includes 98, identifying the pictured Cadiz as 1998.
stoneware
Illustrated object: Cadiz.
Undated
Voulkos 75
The inscription includes 75, identifying the pictured Charger as 1975.
stoneware
Illustrated object: Charger.
Undated
porcelain, stoneware
Example dated 1973.
porcelain, stoneware
Illustrated object: Plate.
About Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos was born Panagiotis Harry Voulkos in Bozeman, Montana, in 1924. After military service he studied art at Montana State, where Frances Senska introduced him to ceramics. He graduated in 1951 and completed an MFA in Oakland the following year. Early work included carefully thrown bottles and dinnerware, and he worked with Rudy Autio at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena.
Teaching at Black Mountain College in 1953 brought him into contact with experimental artists. He established the ceramics department at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1954 and moved to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959. His increasingly sculptural ceramics combined thrown and slab-built elements, cuts, holes and expressive surface marks. Large vessels and stacks became important forms alongside plates and chargers.
Voulkos continued making work and giving public demonstrations long after his initial break with functional pottery. His signatures appear as painted lettering and incised handwriting, sometimes accompanied by a year. He died in Bowling Green, Ohio, in 2002 while visiting to teach a ceramics workshop.
Also known as: Panagiotis Voulkos · Panagiotis Harry Voulkos
Look-alikes & how to tell them apart
Rudy Autio →
Voulkos and Autio worked together in Montana and both developed sculptural ceramics.
Read the surname rather than attributing an expressive ceramic by its Montana connection. Autio’s name is separate; Voulkos’ signatures spell VOULKOS.
John Mason and Kenneth Price →
All three were central to experimental ceramics in postwar Los Angeles.
Compare the signed base, form and ownership history with the artist’s other work. Abstract form or an Otis association alone cannot distinguish them.