Large "Desert" bowl (glazed rim)

For thirty years Lukens was professor of ceramics at University of Southern California. Committed to exploring the raw material of ceramics, he worked in earthenware and sought out native materials—agate, amethyst, turquoise—in the dessert around his home for his experiments with glazes. His simple, clean forms are covered in deep dripping glazes in the brilliant “California colors” of the local landscape. “My work is an incarnation of the [American] West,” Lukens said.