Tag Archives: Gertrud & Otto Natzler

American Modernist Ceramic Artists

 

It is generally recognised that Modernist design had its initial inception in Europe in 1919, with the opening of the Bauhaus school of Design in Germany. It was founded with the idea of creating a “total” work of art in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design.This was also the major driving force behind the Mid-Century era of art, which spanned from the early 1940’s to the early 80’s. In the USA, the sparse, clean lines of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture and the emerging acceptance of the Scandinavian design ethic, had an incisive influence on interior design and ceramic styles. Below are a collection of some of the many American artists that made fantastic  contributions to this unique phase of art and design.

 Clyde Burt :

Ceramic artist Clyde Burt (1922-1981) is widely recognized as a pioneer in the American studio ceramics movement. He studied at Fort Wayne Art School and the Cape Cod School of Art and completed graduate work under Maija Grotell at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He exhibited at the Ceramic Nationals in Syracuse in 1954, 1956 and 1958. In 1957 he won the Art Institute of Chicago Designer-Craftsman Award. His pieces are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Everson Museum of Art.

 

Clyde Burt Lidded Vessel

Clyde Burt Lidded Vessel

 

 

 

 

Nuns wall plaque lyde Burt ca.-1960

Ceramic Wall Relief  – Clyde Burt   c       a – 1960

( 1stdibs )

 

 

 

Large ceramic vessel wtih etched design

Large ceramic vessel wtih etched design – Clyde Burt

 

 

 

Clyde Burt Glazed stoneware vessel with lid

Clyde Burt – Glazed modernist stoneware vessel with lid

 

 

 

Clyde Burt pottery vase

Clyde Burt pottery vase

 

 

 

Clyde Burt vase, stoneware

Clyde Burt vase, stoneware

(  Clyde Burt Ceramics | Facebook )

 

 

 

AAA Auctions Clyde Burt

Clyde Burt well panel,plate & vases

( AAA Auctions )

Tall-Clyde-Burt-American-Studio-vase

 Large stoneware bottle form vase with an incised geometric design – Clyde Burt

Height 16.5 inches  ( Trocadero – Studio 2.0 )

Monumental glazed earthenware vase

Clyde Burt  – Monumental glazed earthenware vase.This dates from early in Burt’s career when he was working in Ohio in the 1950’s

Height 33 inches ( Wright Auctions 2002 )

 

 

 

Clyde Burt Tiled Wall Panel

Clyde Burt Tiled Wall Panel

(  Clyde Burt Ceramics | Facebook )

 

 

 

Clyde Burt vase Daytona

Clyde Burt – Vase, Dayton-Melrose, OH, 1955

 

 

 

Clyde Burt ceramic vase

Clyde Burt ceramic vase

 

 

 

 

Clyde Burt ceramic wall panel

Clyde Burt ceramic wall panel

(  Clyde Burt Ceramics | Facebook )

 

 

 

 

Large Vessel Clyde Burt

Large Bottle –  Clyde Burt

 

 

 

 

Modernist Bowl Clyde Burt

Modernist Bowl – Clyde Burt

 

 

 

 

Mr.-Fisher's-Clyde-Burt-Collection

Clyde Burt modernist vase

 

 

 

 

Clyde Burt Vase

Clyde Burt Vase

 

 

 

 

Mid century Vase

Mid centuryVase -Clyde Burt

 

 

 

Clyde Burt-1963-1964

Modernist Figurines  – Clyde Burt

1963-1964

 

 

 

Clyde Burt Ceramic Vessel Incised design

Clyde Burt Ceramic Vessel  Incised design

 

 

 Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman :

 

Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman are skilled craftsmen and designers who were instrumental in defining Mid-Century Modern home decor.  After attending the “For Modern Living” exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1949, where they encountered the design duo of Charles and Ray Eames, the couple decided to devote a life and career to design . Here, for their generation, was a fresh and exciting alternative to the “mundane, what-your-mother-had, doilies-on-a-table” kind of traditional home decor. “We didn’t know we had missed it, because it hadn’t been there. * Jerome recalls, “If the Eames can do it, why can’t we?”; so they opened the Jenev Design Studio (a combination of their names) in West Los Angeles. They began producing slip-cast ceramics and eventually expanded their offering to include a  wide variety of home decor and architectural elements. The business name changed to ERA Industries in 1956.

 

 

Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman collection

Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman modernist ceramic collection

473px-234px-Evelyn-Ackerman,-Horse,-195

Evelyn Ackerman – Horse  1950’s

 

 

 

Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman Ceramic Bottles

Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman  – Ceramic Bottles

Jerome Ackerman modernist vase

Female Figures vase by Jerome Ackerman, 1953

( Mid2Mod .blogspot )

Ackerman rain mosaic

Rain – Evelyn Ackerman Mosaic

 

Gertrud & Otto Natzler :

 

Gertrud  Natzler’s collaboration with her husband, Otto Natzler, extended over almost four decades and produced some of the twentieth century’s finest ceramics. They are held by over seventy museums throughout the world and by countless private collections. Her nearly twenty-five thousand hand-thrown pots, bowls, and bottles are celebrated for their refinement, delicacy, and proportion  Her husband brought exceptional color and texture to the work with the glazes he invented and developed by experimentation, carefully documenting several thousand formulas.

 

Natzler modernist bowl

Natzler modernist bowl

 

 

 

 

Gertrud & Otto Natzler folded bowl, yellow glazed earthenware

Gertrud & Otto Natzler folded bowl with yellow glazed earthenware

 

 

 

Natzler crater bowl, glazed earthenware with burst-bubble glaze

Natzler crater bowl  -glazed earthenware with a burst-bubble glaze and blue highlights.

( Treadway Toomey Auctions – sold )

Gertrud & Otto Natzler earthenware-footed bowl

Gertrud & Otto Natzler earthenware footed bowl

Natzler tall bottle with lip

Natzler Tall bottle with lip – 1962

 

 

Gertrud & Otto Natzler vessel

Gertrud & Otto Natzler  – Monumental vase – 1957

( LAMA – Los Angeles Modern Auctions -Realized: $93,750 )

Otto & Gertrud Natzler ceramics at Common Ground AMOCO

Otto & Gertrud Natzler ceramics at Common Ground, AMOCO

 

 

 

 

Otto & Gertrud Natzler Bowl

Otto & Gertrud Natzler Bowl with a lava glaze.

 

 

 

Gertrud & Otto Natzler bowl 1954

Gertrud & Otto Natzler  – Velvet Chartreuse glazed ceramic – 1945

( LAMA )

 

 

Natzler bowl folded shape bowl

Gertrud & Otto Natzler – folded shape bowl

 

 

 

Gertrud & Otto Natzler Tomato Red Vase

Gertrud & Otto Natzler – Tomato Red Vase

 

 

 

 

Gertrud and Otto Natzler

Gertrud and Otto Natzler

 Russell Wright :

 

 

Russel Wright for Baur Pottery

Centrepiece bowl designed by Russell Wright for Bauer Pottery.

1948

Russel Wright American Modern dinner set

Russel Wright – American Modern dinner set

 

See more Russell Wright ceramics HERE

 

Eva Zeisel :  ( 1906 –  2011 )

Known for her organic modernist ceramic works, Eva Zeisel was truly one of the foremost designers of the Twentieth Century, with a career that spanned into the Twenty First Century. She was the first designer in America to produce an all white dinner service. After settling in the USA, she started designing for pretty large-sized companies like General Mills, Rosenthal China, Castelton China and more. Zeisel was also proud to share her knowledge, and eventually became a professor of Industrial Design at the Pratt Institute in New York. One of her career highlights was in 1946, where she had a one-woman show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She was still designing at the age of 100.

Eva Zeisel was continually intrigued by what she called her “playful search for beauty.” A person of delightfully defiant spirit, the designer was just beginning her career when she declared war on the fashionable avant-garde. “I didn’t accept the purism of modern design,” she said. “In my definition, if it gave beauty to the eye, it was beauty.”

 

Zeisel Art Deco coffee set

Eva Zeisel  – Art Deco coffee set

1932

 

 

 

Eva Ziesel carafe

Eva Ziesel carafe and tray

 

 

 

 

 

Eva Zeisel jugs

Eva Zeisel jugs

“It’s easy to do something stunning that stays in a collector’s cabinet.  But Eva’s designs reached people at the table, where they gather”  – Paola Antonelli

 

 

 

 

 

Large milk pitchers

Large milk pitchers – Eva Ziesel

“The clean lines of modern design can be successfully combined with sensuous, classic shape”  – Eva Zeisel

 

 

 

 

Eva Zeisel Vase

Eva Zeisel Vase

 

 

 

 

 

Eva Zeisel 1983

Eva Zeisel  1983

 

 

 

 

Eva Zeisel Sauce Bowl

Eva Zeisel Sauce Bowl

 

 

 

 

 

 Beatrice Wood :  (1893-1998)

As a potter, Wood was fascinated by the glazing process from the beginning, and dedicated much energy to the study of luster glazing techniques. She also studied briefly with master potters Getrud and Otto Natzler in 1940, who impressed upon her the value of the ceramic vessel as fine art. . In 1948 Wood began to establish a home and studio in Ojai,California and over the next fifteen years began perfecting her own version of the luster glaze.

She was lifelong member of the Theosophical Society which would greatly influence her artistic philosophies. Her path was also shaped by Dada, the art movement of which Wood was a seminal part, which rejected reason and logic; prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. By the early 1970’s, Beatrice Wood had established a reputation as a fine artist and emerged as a leading American exponent of luster pottery. She eventually turned her focus to more complex, decorative vessels, and her work was increasingly sought after by galleries and museums. By the time of her death at the age of 105, Wood had become a well-recognized figure in the world of ceramic art, renowned as much for her luster glazes as for her longevity, vitality, and charm.

 

 

Beatrice Wood ceramic vessel

Beatrice Wood ceramic vessel

 

 

 

 

Beatrice Wood ceramic bowl

Beatrice Wood ceramic bowl

 

 

 

 

 

299px-475px-BeatriceWood

Beatrice Wood vase, bulbous shape covered in a volcanic textured yellow glaze with subtle black highlights.

( Treadway Toomey Auctions )

 

 

 

Mottled-Glaze-Ovoid-Crimped bowl

Mottled Glaze, Ovoid Crimped bowl – Beatrice Wood

( roadside-america.com )

Beatrice Wood

Gold Luster Vessel with Figures  1985

 

 

 

 

Beatrice Wood bowl

Beatrice Wood – deep tourquise glazed bowl

Beatrice Wood wheel throwing

Beatrice Wood

 

 

 

 

Charles Ray Eames Elephant

Charles Ray Eames Elephant

 

 

 

Harrison McIntosh :

 

Born in California in 1914, Harrison McIntosh was a master at his craft, setting aesthetic standards of elegance, precision, technique and design in ceramics. As a pioneer in the post-World War II Southern California crafts movement, his ceramic art continues to be recognized beyond today.

 

Harrison McIntosh Pottery Vase

Harrison McIntosh Pottery Vase

 

 

 

Platter-1984Harrison Mckintosh

Glazed Platter Harrison McIntosh

1984

 

 

Harrison McIntosh

Harrison McIntosh

( Otis Legacy )

 

 

 

 

Double Gourd Bottles -1950

Double Gourd Bottles – Harrison McIntosh

1950

Harrison-Mckingtosh

Harrison McIntosh ceramics at Common Ground, AMOCO

* See more at: http://www.craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/mid-century-modernists#sthash.udAAzkhK.dpuf