Stan Bitters

Stan Bitters is an American ceramics sculptor whose work was instrumental in shaping the organic modernist movement in the 1960s. His work has achieved international recognition and is a staple in many modern design and art shows, and has been featured in the prestigious California Design series and at the Craft and Folk Art Museum as part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980.

His career in ceramics has spanned six decades. His large scale works include ceramic wall murals, sculptures, fountains, and garden pathways. These installations have been featured in several design publications, and can still be experienced in public spaces, banks, hotels, schools, churches, industrial complexes, and private residences. His influence has been present in California architecture since the 1960s.

Bitters received his Bachelor of Arts degree in painting from University of California Los Angeles in 1959. He also attended the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles where he studied under Peter Voulkos. In 1959 he went to work for Hans Sumpf, an adobe brick manufacturer in Madera, California that perfected the process of manufacturing emulsified adobe bricks. Bitters was the company’s resident artist hired to create pottery and other ceramic art. While at Hans Sumpf, Bitters created architectural murals, tiles, bird houses, planters and sculptural objects – designs that would earn him recognition later on as a pioneer of the organic modernist craft movement. He left the company in 1965.

These porous, lowfire clay pieces have a direct connection to Peter Voulkos. By his own account, Bitters said that while a student at Otis, he chanced upon Voulkos sitting in his studio and then proceeded to ask him how to throw a sphere on a potter’s wheel. Bitters took this knowledge with him when he later joined Hans Sumpf and produce birdhouses.

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