Jerry Rothman

American, (1933–2014)

Rothman was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933 and moved to Los Angeles in 1946 to attend Los Angeles City College, the Art Center School, and the Otis Art Institute, where he graduated with an MFA in 1961. While at Otis he studied with Harrison McIntosh and Peter Voulkos. In 1957 the assemblage artist Edward Kienholz organized a group show for the famed Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles which was titled Soldner-Mason-Rothman. This solidified Rothman’s reputation as an important contemporary artist in Southern California. Rothman was appointed head of the California State University, Fullerton, ceramics program in 1970 and remained there until he retired in 1997. In the 1970s Rothman developed a nonshrinking clay and a technique that allowed metal and clay to be fired together, innovations enabling him to fire larger pieces without structural distortion. He passed away in 2014 at his home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where in his last years he created an extensive outdoor ceramic sculpture garden.