Peter Voulkos [1924-2002] is considered the father of abstract expressionism of ceramics. He was born in Montana and attended Montana State College. In 1953, he was exposed to Willem de Kooning and Jack Tworkov when he taught at Black Mountain College. From 1954-1959, he taught at Otis Art Institute which became a center for the burgeoning modern clay artists. Because of his counterculture beliefs, he was fired from Otis and began a 30 year teaching post at the University of California at Berkeley. For many summers he taught at Columbia University in New York where he continued his relationships with the avant-garde artists of the East Coast. Today, his revolutionary art forms are highly sought by collectors and are found in most museums.