Press Release

Linda Ross Contemporary Art + Projects 12872 Sherwood, Huntington Woods, MI 48070
Telephone: 248. 892-2985
linda@lrosscontemporary.com
www.lrosscontemporary.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Visuals Available Upon request)

Linda Ross Contemporary/Art + Projects presents the fifth in a series of ongoing art exhibitions in changing locations throughout the Detroit area.

TITLE: SIX CERAMIC ARTISTS: PIONEERS OF THE GERMAN STUDIO CRAFT MOVEMENT

DATES: MAY 16 – JULY 6, 2008
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, MAY 16, 6 - 8pm
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

SITE 5 LOCATION:
PEWABIC POTTERY
10125 EAST JEFFERSON AVE., DETROIT, MI 48214
Phone: 313.822.0954

HOURS: MON – SAT, 10 am – 6 pm
SUN 12 noon – 4 pm

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
LINDA ROSS 248.892-2985
linda@lrosscontemporary.com
www.lrosscontemporary.com

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Linda Ross, formerly of The Sybaris Gallery in Royal Oak, Michigan presents her fifth exhibition in an alternative space around the metro Detroit area. After closing Sybaris some four years ago, Ross created a unique concept for a “floating” gallery. Several times a year she rents temporary space in various locations in the region and mounts exhibitions. “Six Ceramic Artists: Pioneers of the German Studio Craft Movement” will be situated in Pewabic Pottery located at 10125 East Jefferson Ave. in Detroit. The show will run from May 16 to July 6, 2008. The public is welcome to attend an opening reception on May 16 from 6 – 8 pm. Hours and days of operation at the Pottery are M - Sat, 10 am to 6 pm and on Sun from 12 noon to 4 pm.

“Six Ceramic Artists: Pioneers of the German Studio Craft Movement” focuses on the careers of artists who have been part of the German ceramic art scene since the late 1950s. Beate Kuhn, Görge Hohlt, Ursula and Karl Scheid and Gotlind and Gerald Weigel are six of the country’s leading vessel makers – men and women whose works demonstrate the range and depth of expression of a potter’s art. Their influence on other German potters in the decades following WWII was immense. Associations with the world-renown Bauhaus and Rosenthal Pottery and other highly recognized artists in Europe such Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper and Ruth Duckworth abound.

In 1969 five of the participants along with Margarete Schott, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 93, exhibited their work at Henry Rothschild’s London gallery, Primavera. This was a remarkable exhibition for several reasons. Number one, it was probably one of the first exhibitions of the work of German potters in England since the end of WWII. It was also unusual because German pottery was very different from that of Bernard Leach whose influence reigned in England at the time where even the ceramics of the British artists Lucie Rie and Hans Coper seemed foreign, but most of all it was notable because the invitation to exhibit came from a man whose family had fled Germany to escape death. In the 1960s and 70s there was hardly anyone who promoted German arts and craft in England as much as Rothschild did. He had an ability to differentiate between political conditions and personal artistic integrity which is why he chose to invite these particular potters to exhibit at his gallery. After this historic show, the ‘London Group’ as they came to be known formed a cooperative and they exhibited off and on together throughout the world until 1999 on the occasion of Karl Scheid’s 70th birthday. This group was part of a substantial chapter in the history of European ceramics in the second half of the 20th century. Individually the artists developed stellar reputations of their own. Each has work in major museum collections. The show at Pewabic will mark the groups’ U.S. debut. Görge Hohlt, another pioneer of the German studio craft movement, who along with his father and brother were often invited to show with the ‘London Group’, will join the original five remaining members for what promises to be a historically significant event.

The group in the Pewabic show is comprised of six very different artist personalities. However, distinct connecting features cannot be denied. Apart from their high technical standards, they each are dedicated to perfecting and further developing their own particular style.

In 1952, after his training at the Darmstadt art college, Karl Scheid apprenticed with Harry and May Davis at the Crowan Pottery in England as Margarete Schott had done one year before. He was one of the first – if not the first – of the younger German potters to experience the English studio pottery movement after 1945. The English aesthetic made a lasting impression on Karl as it did Ursula Duntze, who married Karl in 1959. At the time, the leading ceramic art schools in Germany were still influenced by the non-ornamental functional forms of the Bauhaus. English potters on the other hand, found inspiration in the ornamental patterns and decorations of Asian ceramics and traditional European folk art and they were more interested in creating non-utilitarian objects which were more presentational in nature demonstrating the maker’s feel for art.

As representatives of a younger generation of artists, the Scheid’s were attracted to this new development in ceramics as it spurred on their spirit of inventiveness and self expression. Over the years the Scheids have dedicated themselves to making unique vessels. While Ursula Scheid has had success making sculptural work, Karl feels that he was born to make vessels. There is a clear distinction in the work of the two Scheids. Ursula rarely alters the form of her vessels. Karl likes to explore the possibilities of cut and recombined forms, of oval and squared shapes. Karl expresses a more dynamic approach through form, while Ursula uses decoration to demonstrate her sense of free spirit. Using a basic element, she repeats the pattern around her spherical and symmetric forms, like the repetitions in natural objects such as leaves or shells. She is interested in the volume of her containers, so she varies the scale, the materials and the decorative patterns, which gives the work a sense of calmness, warmth and a synthesis of form and decoration.

Karl Scheid is interested in the silhouette of his vessels -- in expressing architectural constructions and building the pieces together in a logical and balanced way. Angular forms are a current progression of one aspect of his constructed pieces. He slices and rearranges sections much in the way sculptors use prefabricated forms. He enjoys the problems posed by geometry, the play of angels, the plus and minus and the positive and negative of shapes and groups of shapes. He uses color to emphasize different planes, the aspect of the cut and movement of the total form. The measurements are intuitive rather than calculated or from pre-determined drawings; he needs to work on the actual form, he says, to give him the perspective of scale. For different sized work he uses a variety of clay bodies and believes there is a scale that is correct for each one. He has a repertoire of shapes which look well together, the different shapes being balanced and acting cohesively as a group.

In 1979 the Scheids accepted an invitation to collaborate with the industrial company of Rosenthal to design a range of wares and assist in the development of clay bodies and glazes. Over a period of 10 years, they spent a considerable amount of time in the factory and at their own studio working and experimenting at what resulted in a successful cooperative venture.

Art is a part of Beate Kuhn’s heritage. Her father was a sculptor, her mother a musician. During her early studies at the Werkkunstschule in Darmstadt, she designed elegant avant-garde vases and a jar for the Rosenthal porcelain factory’s studio-line. These vessels are 1950s’ classics. Her first autonomous works are sculpted vessels, which reveal her fascination with the oeuvre of Joan Miro and Paul Klee. Her work at this time was wheel-thrown and intensively colored and painted; certainly not a trend during that period. In 1957 she moved to Dudelsheim and set up her own workshop sharing a studio with fellow potters Karl and Ursula Scheid. During the 1960s she abandoned utilitarian work in favor of sculpture. Each piece consists of individual thrown and cut elements, which are then assembled to form concrete or abstract objects, animals or metamorphoses of plants and stones. The richness of her imagination is reflected in the stunning inventions of her paraphrases of organic and inorganic natural phenomena. Characterized by the colors of their glazes, the ceramic sculptures of Beate Kuhn combine nature with invention, tectonics with rhythm, deliberation with free flowing fantasy. These qualities, which contrasted with those of the other members in the ‘London Group’, helped to make their exhibitions distinctive.

Sculptural qualities are also a factor in Gerald Weigel’s objects. Weigel was born in 1925 and grew up in Thuringen where, like his ancestors, he learned his trade of porcelain-making. He began his career in 1947, first as a porcelain model-maker in a factory and then with a private company. In 1961 Gerald and wife Gotlind set up a joint workshop in Mainz. In the early years, they worked together: Gotlind threw and Gerald glazed and fired in the electric kiln. The production consisted of tableware and individual pieces in stoneware. From the beginning the thrown forms were frequently altered to an oval cross-section or used as the basis for assembled vessels such as the narrow-necked vases resembling pilgrim bottles which they became known for. Their glazes included zinc-barium glazes in yellow, blue and beige as well as a soft gray pebble glaze.

Since 1968 Gerald has experimented with vessel sculptures assembled from slabs. At the same time, he discovered the winged form, which is still significant in his work. While Gerald worked on these forms Gotlind starting experimenting with fine stoneware. She used her remarkable throwing skills developed from making the production series to make one-off pieces. These delicate forms, which can be described as flower, shell or mushroom shapes, represent a personal exploration into the style of Art Nouveau.

In the following years, the work of Gerald and Gotlind found new interpretations. Increasingly, Gerald’s hand-built work became more sculptural inspired by natural structures such as stones, rock surfaces, hardened lava and fossilized leaves. Gotlind on the other hand, enhanced her basic forms including her eccentrically shaped teapots. The variety of shapes she uses for her porcelain teapots are basic cones, cylinders or bowls which she cuts into parts and assembles again. Spouts, lids and handles are wheel-thrown as well.

In 1983, the increasing opportunities to exhibit in museums and galleries, as well as the growing interest in one-off pieces, led to their abandoning the production tableware.

Although not part of the original ‘London Group’ Görge Hohlt and his father and brother are all considered pioneers of the German studio craft movement in clay too. Bound up in possibilities of artistic freedom, Görge discovered the wonderful art of Chinese pottery of the Sung period. He developed his own stoneware material and composed his own china clay experimenting with those old celebrated glazes. His ox-blood glaze enchanted collectors and earned him numerous prizes. Although he has adapted his forms to modern times, he stills prefers glazes fired in a reduced atmosphere as they produce mysterious and unpredictable colors.

The original ‘London Group’ members included the Hohlts in many of their exhibitions, because they shared the same artistic convictions in regards to ceramics being a free art form in the same realm as sculpture as well as with painting in relationship to the free use of glaze. Together they all made ceramic history not only in Germany, but also in Vienna, Zurich, Basle, Tokyo and the Netherlands. The opportunity to show at Pewabic Pottery, a place that represents the birth of the studio craft movement in America, will certainly add a new and important dynamic in the artistic history of those who pioneered the classical phase of modern ceramics at the end of World War II in Germany.