For this episode and contemporary audio, I sat down, remotely, with Richard Notkin on November 13, 2025, for an extended conversation about his life in clay and the principles that have fueled his practice.
Notkin, who has spent nearly sixty years making work that confronts war, challenges the failures of human leadership, and probes humanity’s fragile relationship with the environment, speaks with the clarity of someone who has never separated his artistry from his ethics. With characteristic frankness, he traces the events that shaped his worldview – from Cold War tensions, to the Vietnam era, to today’s global instability. What follows is a masterclass about art as conscience and craftsmanship as conviction. This interview captures an artist looking backward, forward, and unflinchingly at the present.
