Bruce Breckinridge

Bruce Breckenridge was a wonderful influence and addition to my ceramic education — warm, funny and full of knowledge of the wide world of art outside of ceramics. He really related to the Fine Arts scene on both coasts much more than some romantic zen notion of earthy clay.

Bruce works in bright, hard-edged colors, using the more industrial based processes of slip casting and tile to make vibrant assemblages of images and objects. He set up internships in the Kohler (plumbing) factory and brought to the program a great deal of knowedge about slip casting, low fire clays, tile bodies and glazes.

In contrast to my other grad school ceramics teacher at UW Madison, Don Reitz, who was very concerned with the romance of expressing qualities inherent in clay, Bruce couldn’t give a rip about that, frankly said so, and made work that showed it. The contrast Bruce added to the program challenged all of us to really think about where our ceramics fit in the art world.

Bruce had worked as a curator at the Whitney and also at the American Crafts Council Museum. He has a photographic memory of every show he ever set, and probably most of those he has ever seen. He could tell me each piece of every show he had set at the Whitney and if, for example, they were paintings, exactly where on the wall each was placed, and next to what. This encyclopedic memory made Bruce exceedingly useful when I went to New York and could call to ask about restaurants! He was legendary for knowing what was on almost evey corner. Similarly he was a great resource to talk to about ideas, since he knew so many artists and their work.

Bruce and his wife Suzanne were great and generous hosts of our raucus and increasingly gourmet ceramic graduate brunches which brought us all together at their Madison home. Bruce has had a very productive retirement, and now, at 86, is still working in his studio.