Bernard Kester

Bernard Kester (1928-2018) entered the craft world as a potter and textile designer in the 1950s. Over the course of his career, he wore many other hats including writer, professor, curator, and exhibition designer.

Kester studied and worked with Laura Andreson in the UCLA Art Department pottery studio but several textile commissions and the need to build a fiber program quickly led him to focus on textiles. He became one of the most influential fiber art professors in the 1960s, encouraging his students to create experimental, sculptural work in the medium before the practice had become established in the art world. He taught at UCLA for nearly four decades and served as Dean of the School of Art. Kester’s talents with the subtleties of tone, color and texture were demonstrated in his mid-century textile designs that embodied the spirit and style of that era.