Eva Zeisel

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Eva Zeisel
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birth_date = birth date and age|1906|11|13
birth_place = Hungary
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Industrial designer

Eva Zeisel (born Eva Amalia Stricker, [ The Eva Zeisel Forum; www.evazeisel.org ] November 13, 1906) is a Hungarian industrial designer known for her work with ceramics, primarily from the period after she immigrated to the United States. Her forms are often abstractions of the natural world and human relationships. [ Thurman, Judith; Prolific; December 18, 2006, The New Yorker ] Work from throughout her prodigious career is included in important museum collections across the world. Zeisel declares herself a "maker of useful things." [ Thurman, Judith; Prolific; December 18, 2006, The New Yorker ] . Zeisel currently resides in New York where continues to design furniture as well as glass and ceramic objects.

Biography

She was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1906 to a wealthy, highly educated assimilated Jewish family. Her mother, Laura Polanyi Striker, a historian, was the first woman to graduate from the University of Budapest. Her work on Captain John Smith's adventures in Hungary added fundamentally to our understanding and appreciation of his reliability as a narrator. Laura's brothers, Karl Polanyi, the sociologist and economist, and Michael Polanyi, the physical chemist and philosopher of science, are also extremely well known. Despite her family's intellectual prominence in the sciences, Eva Striker was always interested in the arts. At 17, Zeisel entered Kepzomuveszeti Academia (the Budapest Royal Academy of Fine Arts). [ The Eva Zeisel Forum; www.evazeisel.org ] Originally, she hoped to become a painter but eventually decided to pursue a more practical profession and apprenticed herself to the guild of potters. She left the academy in 1925 to work with a potter in Budapest learning to design and make ceramic objects. [ Matchan, Linda; At 98, Ziesel’s Design Influence Comes Full Circle; June 23, 2005, The Boston Globe ] She was the first woman to learn the craft and, after mastering the basics of ceramic manufacture, applied for work with German ceramic manufacturers. In 1928 Eva Stricker became the designer for the Schramberger Majolikafabrik in the Black Forest region of Germany where she worked for about two years creating many designs for tea sets, vases, inkwells and other ceramic items. Her designs at Schramberg were largely based on geometry and were clearly influenced by the Bauhaus design school in Weimar and later Dessau.

In 1932 Eva Striker decided to join her brother, Michael, a patent attorney, who was working in the Soviet Union as a foreign expert at the invitation of Joseph Stalin. In 1935, at the age of 29, after working several jobs in the ceramic industry--inspecting factories in the Ukraine as well as designing for the Lomonosov factory—Zeisel was named the artistic director of the Soviet ceramics industry. [ Matchan, Linda; At 98, Ziesel’s Design Influence Comes Full Circle; June 23, 2005, The Boston Globe ] It was only a year later, in 1936, while living in Moscow Zeisel was accused of participating in an assassination plot against Stalin. Zeisel was arrested and held in prison for 16 months, 12 of which were spent in solitary confinement. [ Thurman, Judith; Prolific; December 18, 2006, The New Yorker ] Zeisel was released and deported to Vienna, Austria. Her experiences in the Soviet prison form the basis for Darkness at Noon, the well known anti-Stalinist novel written by her childhood sweetheart, Arthur Koestler. It was while in Vienna that Zeisel met her husband Hans Zeisel. In 1938, shortly after her arrival and marriage, the Nazis invaded Vienna encouraging the couple to move to New York with only $64.00 to their name. [ McGee, Celia; Eva’s Ardor; Departures Magazine; March 2007 ]

Zeisel’s career in design continued to develop in the United States. In addition to designing for companies such as General Mills, Rosenthal China, Castelton China, Zeisel taught one of the first courses in industrial design at the Pratt Institute in New York. In 1946, Zeisel had the first one-woman show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Zeisel stopped designing for industry during the 1960’s and 1970’s, returning to work in the 1980’s. [ Traubman, Eleanor; Meeting Eva Zeisel; January 13, 2007, http://creativetimes.blogspot.com/2007/01/meeting-eva-zeisel.html ] Many of her recent designs have found the same success as her earlier designs. Zeisel’s recent designs have included a teakettle for Chantal, glasses for Nambe, a sink and bathtub for Signature, ceramics for KleinReid, a coffee table for Eva Zeisel Originals (later became available through Design Within Reach) as well as the designer of one of Crate and Barrel’s best selling dinner services. [ McGee, Celia; Eva’s Ardor; Departures Magazine; March 2007 ]

Career

Eva Zeisel’s designs are made for use. The inspiration for her sensuous forms often comes from the natural organic curves of the body, taking advantage of the softness of clay. Zeisel’s more organic approach to modernism most likely comes as a reaction to the Bauhaus aesthetics that were popular at the time of her early training. Her sense of form and color show influence from the Hungarian folk arts she grew up seeing. [ McGee, Celia; Eva’s Ardor; Departures Magazine; March 2007 ] All of Zeisel’s designs, whether it be her furniture, metal, glass or ceramic, are often made in sets or in relationship to other objects. Many of Zeisel’s designs nest together creating modular designs that also function to save space.

Zeisel describes her designs in a New York Sun article: “I don’t create angular things. I’m a more circular person—it’s more my character….even the air between my hands is round.” [ Herrup, Katharine; A Potter, a Pioneer, A Candlestick Maker; The New York Sun, At Home Section, March 3, 2007 ]

Her best known work includes the eccentric, biomorphic "Town and Country" line of dishes, produced by Red Wing Pottery, The "Tomorrow's Classic" and "Century" lines for Hallcraft, the "Museum" line from Castleton, which was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Tri-Tone line by Hall. In 1998, a limited run of reproduction Town and Country pieces was sold through MoMA. (Crate & Barrel currently is selling a new reproduction line called "Century" which includes many of the original "Century" pieces, along with a few of the "Tomorrow's Classic" pieces. Unlike the originals, these are claimed to be oven proof.)

Zeisel’s works are in the permanent collections of Brohan Museum, Germany; the British Museum; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Musée des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Brooklyn, Metropolitan, Dallas, Knoxville, Milwaukee. In 2005, Zeisel was awarded the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. [ The Eva Zeisel Forum; www.evazeisel.org ]

On December 10, 2006, The Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park, San Diego, opened a major centenary retrospective exhibit "Eva Zeisel: Extraordinary Designer at 100," showing her designs from Schramberg (1928) through to current designs for Nambe, Chantal, Eva Zeisel Originals and others (2006). The exhibit will ran until June 10, 2007. [http://www.mingei.org/curex.html Mingei International Museum current exhibits] retrieved 2007 April 10.

In 2008, a new line called "One O One", which is organic shaped dinnerware, was created exclusively by Royal Stafford for Bloomingdale’s. This collection of dinnerware and serving pieces capture the essence of her world-renowned style. Shown clockwise from the top middle: Teapot, Rockland Bowl, Gravy Boat, S&P Shakers, Dinner Plate, Salad Plate, Cup and Saucer (stacked), Sugar and Creamer.

External links

* [http://www.evazeisel.org Eva Zeisel Forum]
* [http://www.mindspring.com/~dway/town.html Collector's information about Town and Country by Red Wing]
* [http://www.mingei.org Mingei International Museum]
* [http://www.evazeiseloriginals.com Eva Zeisel Originals]
* [http://www.canobiefilms.org/throwing_curves.htm Throwing Curves Documentary]
* [http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=50&f=7859 Crate & Barrel]
* [http://www.kleinreid.com Klein Reid]
* [http://http:ceramicsmuseum.alfred.edu/exhibitions/eva/ New York State College of Ceramics]

References