Otto Gertrud Natzler Mid Century Modern Original Large American Art Studio Ceramic Pottery Bright Green Bronze Crystalline Glaze Vase Signed
Otto and Gertrud Natzler were two of this century’s most influential ceramists. Gertrud and Otto Natzler met in 1934, and the two began to study ceramics together at the workshop of Franz Iskra. Only one year later, they set up their own studio, devoting themselves full-time to their art. In March 1938, on the day the Natzlers learned they had been awarded a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Paris, the Germans took over Austria. They came directly to Los Angeles in October 1938; after fleeing their home in Vienna, Austria. They brought to the United States, highly modernist, innovative European ideas; and a tradition in ceramics that had not previously been witnessed. They set up their studio within several months of their arrival in Los Angeles, and began exhibiting almost immediately. Settling into a new workshop in Los Angeles, the Natzlers began a long and prolific American career, distinguished by national and international recognition, innumerable exhibitions, awards, and acclaim. They spent the summers from 1956 to 1960 as artists-in-residence at the Brandeis Institute in Santa Susana, California, conducting ceramics workshops for college-age Jewish participants. (Among many institutions where their work is exhibited are the Jewish Museum in New York, Bezalel National Museum in Jerusalem, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.)
To supplement their income, they would also accept students, thus disseminating their skills and influence early on. One of their first students was Beatrice Wood who learned from Gertrud to throw pots and from Otto about glazes and glazing. Their enormous influence on other ceramists, including Glen Lukens, Laura Anderson, is both remarkably indelible, and legendary.
Otto Natzler invented over 2,000 glazes; each glaze Otto created painstakingly perfected to suit his wife, Gertrud's, thrown pottery forms. Many started as experimentation, and became highly distinct within their pottery. (Crystalline glaze, invented by the Natzlers in the late 1950's; approximately 1957). Often referred to as "skins"; each "skin", (glaze), Otto created, different to suit each piece that Gertrud had thrown.
Their work is highly distinguished among collectors and museums; their art pottery is held nationally, and internationally; by over seventy museums throughout the world.
Short list of museum holdings of Otto and Gertrud Natzler, include:
The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Carnegie Museum of Art
Crocker Art Museum
American Craft Museum, New York NY
Museum of Contemporary Craft (MoCC)
ASU Art Museum
Everson Museum of Art
The Jewish Museum of Vienna
Arizona State University Art Museum
Museum of Arts and Design (NY)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Art Institute of Chicago
Gertrud, Otto Natzler
Approximately 1965
Vase Measures approximately 11.6"H X 8.1"W
Signed NN by hand, on the bottom
Bright Green Glaze on top, a bronze crystalline type glaze, on the bottom.
Good condition. There was a small chip on the top/edge rim of the vase, that has been professionally restored. Bronze shows faint surface markings from settled dust, and oils from hands/fingers; and has been lightly cleaned, but may need a more thorough, professional clean. In some light, lower portion of crystalline glaze reflects almost a bronze crystalline, and in other light, in other areas, it appears more of a gunmetal.
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