Richard Notkin’s works speak clearly, and he also has a gift for verbal expression, so he has spoken and written about his art with eloquence. The works draw on cross-cultural sources – he was inspired by Yixing ceramics – and they are exceptional in the ceramics of his time in their focus on ethical and existential issues. But one need not know Chinese ceramics or the specific moral issues of the day to see something in the work and respond to it.
This is partly because it is pictorial. That gives the viewer a starting point, something to identify, perhaps relate to, something to place in some projected context.
