Rick Dillingham

American, 1952–1994

Birth placeLake Forest, Illinois, United States

Death placeSanta Fe, New Mexico, United States

BiographyBorn: 1952, Lake Forest, IL. Died: 1994, Sante Fe, NM. Education: Dillingham studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, B.F.A. from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in 1974 and M.F.A. from the California's Claremont Graduate School. Awards: Dillingham received Visual Artists Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1977 and 1982. Art: Apart from his work as an artist, Dillingham interested himself in a broad range of activities. He was a respected dealer in contemporary and historic American Indian pottery; he curated a number of exhibitions and wrote the most successful book ever on the subject: Seven Families. Dillingham's pottery reflected his knowledge of, and interest in, American prehistoric Indian pottery. He became intrigued by the notion of the vessel as an assembly of shards when he was restoring pots at the Museum of New Mexico, Laboratory of Anthropology, in Santa Fe and his work is greatly sought after today.

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