Art professor, gallery director Ted Potter dies

Ted Potter, Virginia Commonwealth University associate professor in art and director emeritus of the Anderson Gallery, died on Nov. 2 at the age of 73.

Potter, a strident supporter of artistic freedom, was perhaps best known for his defense of photographer Andres Serrano's depiction of a crucifix submerged in a glass of urine. As director of the North Carolina-based Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, which exhibited the work in 1989, Potter underwent a congressional investigation amidst charges of blasphemy.

A Kansas native, Potter earned a master of fine arts degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1961. He was the first full-time director of the Winston-Salem Gallery of Fine Arts, which from 1967 to 1991, he developed into the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art.

Potter, who served as director of VCU's Anderson Gallery from 1996 to 2005, died of pancreatic cancer.

For more information, visit http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=
RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191568448.