Jack Rogers Hopkins

Designer-craftsman Jack Rogers Hopkins was born in Spring Valley in 1920. He earned a BA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1950 and an MFA from Claremont Graduate School in 1958. Hopkins started teaching courses in drawing, painting and furniture design at San Diego State College in 1961. Concurrent to his faculty position in San Diego, Hopkins also led summer classes at Claremont Graduate School in 1964 and 1965.

According to San Diego’s Craft Revolution, “Jack Hopkins… was involved with everything from painting and ceramic sculpture to furniture design, a category in which he enjoyed particular acclaim in the 1970s… he taught a wide variety of courses, including drawing and composition, painting, and later, advanced furniture design. He occasionally taught ceramics classes but was described in the 1963 Ceramics: East and West catalogue as a ceramic sculptor. He exhibited sculptural objects in clay and jewelry nationally throughout most of the 1960s.” Hopkins’s jewelry was published in Craft Horizons, Art Week and the Los Angeles Times, and it was exhibited in the California Design series.”

Author Dave Hampton continued, “Aside from his painting, Hopkins was most engaged by the creative process of making sculpture. He tended to work in bold gestures, and he was less concerned with how long a piece would last than with realizing challenging and surprising forms.”

Over the years interest in Hopkins’ work has grown - including the 2003 exhibition, The Maker’s Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Here, Hopkins joined his better-known peers Sam Maloof, George Nakashima, Wharton Esherick and Arthur Espenet Carpenter. More recently, the text Jack Rogers Hopkins California Design Maverick has further explored his legacy.