Ceramics: Early Years

Touster began making ceramics in the late 1940's and would throw, glaze and fire the pots and plates himself. He attended the University of New Hampshire, where he pursued an MA degree, and while there was greatly influenced by his pottery teachers, Mary and Ed Scheier.

In 1951 he chaired the ceramics department at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. He also began to exhibit and get reviewed regularly, and his reputation in the field grew.

Just as he began finding success as a ceramicist, he turned his energies to painting and sculpture, having convinced himself that pottery was an inferior art form. It would be close to fifty years before he returned to the medium again.

(Click on thumbnail to enlarge image, and to view artwork data)