05/15/2025
Howard Kottler, whose irreverent art seems ever so current, used his profile in many of his works. The addition of his goatee drew a parallel to the silhouette of the West Coast where sexual liberation was occurring and where he would head after living in the midwest. He taught at the University of Washington, Seattle, and, as a gay man, spent much time in San Francisco. Toward his late years, Kottler masterminded a powerful body of work that included several vases using a Rubens-Vase effect, the artist mirroring his own inward-facing silhouette to create the illusion of a vase in negative space. It was a visual gag. But more than humor can be read from this object performing as a vase, sculpture, self-portrait. One might also read his coupling as narcissistic or gay love or late life self-reflection. Kottler died of cancer, but many gay men at the time were dying of AIDS related causes.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Howard Kottler (1930-1989) received his BS, MA, and PhD (in ceramics!) from Ohio State University. But the year Kottler spent at Cranbrook Academy of Art under the mentorship of Majia Grottell forever changed him. He earned his MFA in 1957 at the academy and for which there is a scholarship in his name.
