KEN PRICE

I read this morning with great sadness of the death of Ken Price, the Southern California-based maker of delightful, always eye-challenging ceramic objects, so original in form and concept, so brilliant in color and design that no one has ever dared to emulate them. For most of his life, he worked small--a quality that I admire in a post-war art world where big is too often mistaken for significant. With Ken Price's works, I'm always torn between the intense desire to pick them up and feel their shapes in my hands, and the respect for distance they command in their aesthetic perfection. While I did not know him well and met him only on occasion, I was always struck by his inner sparkle and the rich humanity that shines forth in his work.