Long-time Laguna Beach resident and ceramic sculptor Jerry Rothman died Thursday, June 5 at the age of 81 near his sculpture park and home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  A full description of his life and career has been posted here.  Rothman created his first sculpture garden on the grounds of his Laguna Beach studio in the 1980s.  Rothman attended Otis Art Institute beginning in 1956. Ed Keinholz organized Rothman's first group exhibition, Clay Forms: Soldner-Mason-Rothman, at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1957. After working in Japan designing ceramics for export to the United States from 1958-60, Jerry returned to Los Angeles, completed his masters degree at the Otis Art Institute in 1962, and proceeded to develop a series of large-scale figurative sculpture.   

Rothman was head of the ceramics department at the University of Iowa before becoming head of the ceramics department at California State University, Fullerton in 1971, retiring in 1996. He is credited with inventing non-shrinking clay and developing new ways of fusing clay and metal in order to create large-scale sculptural forms.  From 2006-2011 Rothman built his final signature work, an arts complex consisting of a studio/home and a sculpture garden in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The Jerry Rothman San Miguel de Allende Sculpture Park consists of an array of fifteen sculptures installed on a two-acre site, which is anchored by a studio/living space designed and built by the artist. Rothman was in a numerous exhibitions including solo shows at the Pasadena Art Museum (1961); the Garth Clark Gallery, New York (1976) and Los Angeles (1982); and a retrospective at the Laguna Art Museum (2003). He participated in over a hundred group exhibitions nationally and internationally. Plans for a celebration of Jerry and his life will be released at a later date; for information please email boltoncolburn8@gmail.com. In order to preserve Jerry's sculpture for the future, donations may be sent in his name to Laguna Art Museum, which cares for the largest collection of his work at a public institution.