Hoyt exhibition reveals work of ceramic modernist

the vindicator

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — In the 1940s, an original brand of modernism was brought to the ceramic industry by a spirited Hungarian woman by the name of Eva Zeisel.

Her designs not only appeared in the catalogs and on the shelves of Sears & Roebuck, Hallcraft, Red Wing, Pottery, The Orange Chicken and Crate and Barrel, but in the first one-woman show ever held for a designer at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1946. At the MOMA, Zeisel debuted a new line of dinnerware known as the museum shape, America’s first all-white place setting, later boasting the artwork of such pre-eminent artists as Pablo Picasso.

The museum line introduced the name Zeisel to America and was produced exclusively by Castleton China, a division of Shenango China in New Castle.

While Zeisel’s designs were considered avant garde at the time, they have since become classic examples of the art and life of a bygone era and will be celebrated in a new exhibition at the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts. Titled “The Shape of Life: Eva Zeisel,” it contains more than 100 examples of pottery, glass and furniture design collected by the Erie Art Museum to represent the last 70 years of the artist’s career. The exhibition opens today with a public reception at 2 p.m. and runs through Dec. 31.

Still active at 103, Zeisel’s career has been eventful.

Born Eva Amalia Strickler in Budapest, Hungary, in 1906, she attended the Budapest Royal Academy of Fine Arts. While she dreamed of becoming a painter, her mother had more practical aspirations, and Eva eventually left the Academy to apprentice with a guild of potters learning to design and manufacture pottery. She became the first woman to join the guild. She later moved to Germany, where she became adept in all phases of ceramics production.

Intrigued by the artistic and social movements in Russia, Eva visited her brother, Michael, who was working there as a patent attorney, in 1932. While in Leningrad, she accepted a position at the Lomonosov Factory, the former Imperial Porcelain Factory. By 1935 she was appointed the artistic director of the porcelain and glass industries for the entire Soviet Union.

However, one year later she was falsely accused of plotting to kill Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She was imprisoned for 16 months, 12 of which were spent in solitary confinement. Without explanation, she was released unexpectedly and deported to Austria. This experience was the basis for the well-known anti-Stalinist novel “Darkness Against Noon,” written by Eva’s childhood sweetheart, Arthur Koestler.

It was while in Vienna that Eva met Hans Zeisel. They narrowly escaped Nazi invasion and fled to England, where they were married. The couple emigrated to the United States in 1938 with only $64 between them.

The Zeisels settled in New York where Eva was able to use her impressive credentials to create the department of ceramic arts industrial design at Pratt Institute. She taught there until 1952 while continuing to freelance for leading manufacturers in the ceramics industry.

Zeisel’s work can be found in the collections of major museums across the globe. Her designs were made for use. The inspiration for the sensuous forms often stemmed from the natural, organic curves of the human body. Zeisel’s more organic approach to modernism was most likely a reaction to the Bauhaus aesthetics popular during her early training. Her sense of form and color also were likely influenced by the Hungarian folk arts she grew up with. Her designs — whether ceramic, glass, wood or metal — were often made in sets or in relationship to each other. Many were also modular, nesting together to save space.