Elizabeth Fritsch
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Fritsch MA CBE (born 1940) is a British studio potter
. Her hand built painted pots are often influenced by music, painting, literature and architecture. Fritsch studied harp and then piano at the Royal Academy of Music
from 1958 to 1964, but later took up ceramics under Hans Coper
and Eduardo Paolozzi
at the Royal College of Art
from 1968 to 1971. In 1985, she set up a studio in east London
, England
. Since her first show in 1972, Fritsch has had a number of solo shows. In 1996 she was a finalist for the Jerwood
Prize for Ceramics. Fritschs' work is represented in major collections and museums around the world. and in Britain. Recently a major retrospective was held at the National Museum in Cardiff, UK, in 2010, featuring a complete range of her most significant studio pottery
and recent pieces where she also considered 'the space between the second and third dimensions', a concept she first described as ‘two-and-a-half dimensions’. 'Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels' also marked her 70th birthday.
Museum Bellerive , Zurich
City Art Gallery, Bristol
City Art Gallery, Manchester
Crafts Advisory Committee, London
Kusnst Industri Museet, Copenhagen
Leeds Art Galleries, Lotherton Hall
Musée Des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Museum of Decorative Arts, Motreal
Museum Für Kunst Und Gewerbe, Hamburg
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan
National Ceramic Collection, Cobu
Welsh National Collection, Aberystwyth
Kunstsammlungen-Coburg, Germany
Shigaraki Museum, Japan
, Wales, UK
Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels by Elizabeth Fritsch
Oct 2 2010–Jan 2 2011
2008 Fine Art Society
- London November 11th-December.
2007 Retrospective, Bonhams
, London
2007 Anthony Hepworth Gallery, Bath
2000 Metaphysical Vessels, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2000 Memory of Architecture, Part II, Besson Gallery, London
1998 Sea Pieces, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
1995-6 Retrospective touring to Munich, Karlsruhe, Halle and Bellerive, Zurich
1995 Metaphysical Pots, Bellrive Museum
1994-5 Order and Chaos, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1994 Osiris Gallery, Brussels
1993-5 Vessels from Another World, Northern Centre for the Contemporary Arts, Sunderland, travelling to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Norwich, UK
1992-3 Retrospective, Pilscheur Fine Art, London
1991 Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany
1990 Cross Rhythms and Counterpoint, Edinburgh, Scotland
1978 Leeds Galleries, Temple Newsham; travelled to Glasgow, Bristol, Gateshead, Bolton, and V&A, London
1976 British Craft Centre, London
1974 Waterloo Place Gallery, London
1972 Bing and Grondahl, Copenhagen
2008 Adrian Sassoon, TEFAF, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2008 Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon, COLLECT, V&A Museum, London
2008 Adrian Sassoon, London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
2007 Adrian Sassoon, The International Art + Design Fair, New York, USA
2007 Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
2007 Contributor, 150 anniversary of the V&A, 150 anniversary slideshow
2003-6 Contributor, various art fairs including :Collect, V&A; International Ceramics Fair, London; London Art Fair(Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon); SOFA New York and Chicago (Joanna Bird); Florida International Art Fair (Redfern Gallery)
2003-4 Contributor, Saved – 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund
, Hayward Gallery
, London
2003 Contributor, Five Artists, Frank Loyd Gallery, Los Angeles International Biennale, USA
2003 Contributor, The Legacy of Modern Ceramic Art, part 2, Ceramic Art from an International Perspective, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu
2002 Contributor, Diaspora Cymreig, touring Welsh Art Centres
2001 Contributor, Jerwood Prize exhibition, Crafts Council, London, touring UK
2000 Contributor, Steninge International Ceramics, Sweden
2000 Contributor, Keramic Bienale, Lucerne, Switzerland
2000 Contributor, British Ceramics DK, Keramikmuseet Gimmerhus, Denmark
1999 Contributor, ‘Twenty Five Years of the Crafts Council’, V&A, London
1999 Contributor, ‘British Ceramics’, Metropolitan Museum of Art
, New York
1999 Contributor, Memory of Architecture, Galerie Marianne Heller, Heidelberg
1999 Contributor, ‘World exhibition of Ceramics’, Steningen Palace, Sweden
1999 Contributor, ‘Dialogue in Clay’, Artizana Gallery, Cheshire
1998 Contributor, ‘Fifty Years of Craft’, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
1997 Contributor, 'The Art of Function' with Richard Smith and Richard Warholic
1997 Contributor, 'The Culture of the Stripe' , Munich
1996 Contributor, Jerwood Prize, Crafts Council
touring to Heidelberg and Munich Contributor, Das Andere Gefass, Saarlandisches Kunstlerhaus, Saarbrucken
1993-6 Contributor, The Raw and the Cooked, Barbican Art Gallery, London, touring to MOMA, Oxford and Shigaraki, Japan
1992 Contributor to Keramiske Veje, Den Frie Gallery, Copenhagen
1987 The Stamp of Fame, Fischer Fine Art , London
Elizabeth Fritsch: The Fine Art Society, London, in association with Joanna Bird Pottery. Published by The Fine Art Society, in association with Joanna Bird Pottery, for the exhibition Elizabeth Fritsch, 12 to 27 November 2008, ISBN 978 0 905062 57 0
Studio: Ceramicists and their studios was an exhibition of photographs by Phil Sayer at the Ruthin Craft Centre. Philip Hughes and Amanda Fielding 2010 Published by Ruthin Craft Centre, ISBN 978 1 905865 25 3
, Classic Arts Production, On 14 April 2001 Michael Berkeley's guest was Elizabeth Fritsch
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Ceramic Points of View: 'Optical Pot', by Elizabeth Fritsch Video Podcasts
Studio potter
A studio potter is one who is a modern artist, who either works alone or in a small group, producing unique items of pottery in small quantities, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware or cookware, and...
. Her hand built painted pots are often influenced by music, painting, literature and architecture. Fritsch studied harp and then piano at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
from 1958 to 1964, but later took up ceramics under Hans Coper
Hans Coper
Hans Coper , was an influential German-born British studio potter. His work is often coupled with that of Lucie Rie due to their close association, even though their best known work differs dramatically, with Rie's being more functional and traditional, while Coper's was much more abstract and...
and Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
from 1968 to 1971. In 1985, she set up a studio in east London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Since her first show in 1972, Fritsch has had a number of solo shows. In 1996 she was a finalist for the Jerwood
Jerwood Foundation
The Jerwood Foundation is a major United Kingdom funder of arts, education, and science.The foundation is particularly noted in the arts for establishing the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and associated projects such as the Jerwood Space for dance and exhibitions, the Jerwood Painting Prize, the...
Prize for Ceramics. Fritschs' work is represented in major collections and museums around the world. and in Britain. Recently a major retrospective was held at the National Museum in Cardiff, UK, in 2010, featuring a complete range of her most significant studio pottery
Studio pottery
Studio pottery is made by modern artists working alone or in small groups, producing unique items of pottery in small quantities, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by one individual. Much studio pottery is tableware or cookware but an increasing number of studio potters produce...
and recent pieces where she also considered 'the space between the second and third dimensions', a concept she first described as ‘two-and-a-half dimensions’. 'Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels' also marked her 70th birthday.
Awards
- 1996 Shortlisted for Jerwood Prize
- 1995 Awarded CBECBECBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
- 1995 Elected Senior Fellowship, Royal College of ArtRoyal College of ArtThe Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
- 1993 Gold Medali, Visuelle Spiele, International Handwerksmesse München
- 1987 Bernard LeachBernard LeachBernard Howell Leach, CBE, CH , was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery"-Biography:...
Centenary Post Office Stamp issue with Hans CoperHans CoperHans Coper , was an influential German-born British studio potter. His work is often coupled with that of Lucie Rie due to their close association, even though their best known work differs dramatically, with Rie's being more functional and traditional, while Coper's was much more abstract and...
& Lucie RieLucie RieDame Lucie Rie, DBE was an Austrian-born British studio potter.-Early life:Lucie Rie was born as Lucie Gomperz in Vienna, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary the youngest child of Benjamin Gomperz, a Jewish medical doctor who was a consultant to Sigmund Freud. She had two brothers, Paul and Teddy... - 1980 John RuskinJohn RuskinJohn Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
Bursary for Fictional Archaeology project - 1976 Gold Medal, International Ceramics Competition, Sopot, Poland
- 1972 Prize Winner, Royal CopenhagenRoyal CopenhagenRoyal Copenhagen, officially the Royal Porcelain Factory is a manufacturer of porcelain products and was founded in Copenhagen 1 May 1775 under the protection of Queen Juliane Marie...
Jubilee - 1970 Silver Medal Royal College of ArtRoyal College of ArtThe Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
: Herbert ReadHerbert ReadSir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
Memorial Prize
Museum Collections
- National Museum of Wales,
- Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York - Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, London
Museum Bellerive , Zurich
City Art Gallery, Bristol
City Art Gallery, Manchester
Crafts Advisory Committee, London
Kusnst Industri Museet, Copenhagen
Leeds Art Galleries, Lotherton Hall
Musée Des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Museum of Decorative Arts, Motreal
Museum Für Kunst Und Gewerbe, Hamburg
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan
National Ceramic Collection, Cobu
Welsh National Collection, Aberystwyth
Kunstsammlungen-Coburg, Germany
Shigaraki Museum, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
2010 National Museum CardiffNational Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...
, Wales, UK
Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels by Elizabeth Fritsch
Oct 2 2010–Jan 2 2011
2008 Fine Art Society
Fine Art Society
The Fine Art Society is an art dealership with two premises, one in New Bond Street, London and the other in Edinburgh . It was formed in 1876...
- London November 11th-December.
2007 Retrospective, Bonhams
Bonhams
Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house founded in 1793. It is the third largest auctioneer after Sotheby's and Christie's, and conducts around 700 auctions per year. It has 700 employees....
, London
2007 Anthony Hepworth Gallery, Bath
2000 Metaphysical Vessels, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2000 Memory of Architecture, Part II, Besson Gallery, London
1998 Sea Pieces, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
1995-6 Retrospective touring to Munich, Karlsruhe, Halle and Bellerive, Zurich
1995 Metaphysical Pots, Bellrive Museum
1994-5 Order and Chaos, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1994 Osiris Gallery, Brussels
1993-5 Vessels from Another World, Northern Centre for the Contemporary Arts, Sunderland, travelling to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Norwich, UK
1992-3 Retrospective, Pilscheur Fine Art, London
1991 Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany
1990 Cross Rhythms and Counterpoint, Edinburgh, Scotland
1978 Leeds Galleries, Temple Newsham; travelled to Glasgow, Bristol, Gateshead, Bolton, and V&A, London
1976 British Craft Centre, London
1974 Waterloo Place Gallery, London
1972 Bing and Grondahl, Copenhagen
Selected Group Exhibitions and Art Fairs
2008 Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London2008 Adrian Sassoon, TEFAF, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2008 Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon, COLLECT, V&A Museum, London
2008 Adrian Sassoon, London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
2007 Adrian Sassoon, The International Art + Design Fair, New York, USA
2007 Adrian Sassoon, The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, London
2007 Contributor, 150 anniversary of the V&A, 150 anniversary slideshow
2003-6 Contributor, various art fairs including :Collect, V&A; International Ceramics Fair, London; London Art Fair(Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon); SOFA New York and Chicago (Joanna Bird); Florida International Art Fair (Redfern Gallery)
2003-4 Contributor, Saved – 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund
National Art Collections Fund
The Art Fund is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as well as lobbying on behalf of museums and galleries and their users...
, Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
, London
2003 Contributor, Five Artists, Frank Loyd Gallery, Los Angeles International Biennale, USA
2003 Contributor, The Legacy of Modern Ceramic Art, part 2, Ceramic Art from an International Perspective, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu
2002 Contributor, Diaspora Cymreig, touring Welsh Art Centres
2001 Contributor, Jerwood Prize exhibition, Crafts Council, London, touring UK
2000 Contributor, Steninge International Ceramics, Sweden
2000 Contributor, Keramic Bienale, Lucerne, Switzerland
2000 Contributor, British Ceramics DK, Keramikmuseet Gimmerhus, Denmark
1999 Contributor, ‘Twenty Five Years of the Crafts Council’, V&A, London
1999 Contributor, ‘British Ceramics’, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York
1999 Contributor, Memory of Architecture, Galerie Marianne Heller, Heidelberg
1999 Contributor, ‘World exhibition of Ceramics’, Steningen Palace, Sweden
1999 Contributor, ‘Dialogue in Clay’, Artizana Gallery, Cheshire
1998 Contributor, ‘Fifty Years of Craft’, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
1997 Contributor, 'The Art of Function' with Richard Smith and Richard Warholic
1997 Contributor, 'The Culture of the Stripe' , Munich
1996 Contributor, Jerwood Prize, Crafts Council
Crafts Council
The Crafts Council was established in the United Kingdom in 1971 as the national agency for crafts and was granted a Royal Charter in 1982. The Crafts Council’s vision is to position the UK as the global centre for the making, seeing and collecting of contemporary craft...
touring to Heidelberg and Munich Contributor, Das Andere Gefass, Saarlandisches Kunstlerhaus, Saarbrucken
1993-6 Contributor, The Raw and the Cooked, Barbican Art Gallery, London, touring to MOMA, Oxford and Shigaraki, Japan
1992 Contributor to Keramiske Veje, Den Frie Gallery, Copenhagen
1987 The Stamp of Fame, Fischer Fine Art , London
Publications
Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels by Elizabeth Fritsch, published by the National Museum of Wales, October 2010, ISBN 978 0 7200 0611 7Elizabeth Fritsch: The Fine Art Society, London, in association with Joanna Bird Pottery. Published by The Fine Art Society, in association with Joanna Bird Pottery, for the exhibition Elizabeth Fritsch, 12 to 27 November 2008, ISBN 978 0 905062 57 0
Studio: Ceramicists and their studios was an exhibition of photographs by Phil Sayer at the Ruthin Craft Centre. Philip Hughes and Amanda Fielding 2010 Published by Ruthin Craft Centre, ISBN 978 1 905865 25 3
Articles
- LAURA GASCOIGNE "Ahead of their time" © PROLITTERIS, ZURICH, The Spectator, SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2011
- The Wall Street Journal 'A New Spin on Ceramics' by By Margaret Studer, 18 May 2006
- Moira Vincentelli “Women & Ceramics, Gendered Vessels”, Manchester University Press, 2000, pg 249. ISBN 10 0719038405, ISBN 13 978 0719038402
- Garth Clark “The Potter’s Art”, Phaidon 1995, pgs 200-01. ISBN 10 0714832022, ISBN 13 978 0714832029
- John Houston The Abstract pot forms of expression and decoration by nine artist potters, Bellew Publishing 1991.
- Fischer Fine Art (1986) Nine Potters Bernard Leach, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, Michael Cardew, Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, Elizabeth Fritsch, Ewen Henderson, Elizabeth Raeburn, Claudi Casanovas’ Catalogue of an exhibition held at Fisher Fine Art, 1986. ASIN B001ON0RX2
- John Russell Taylor, Elizabeth Fritsch - Pots About Music 'Ceramic Review', 58 Jul/Aug 1979 pgs 30-33.
- J.D.H. Catleugh Recent Pots, Improvisations from Earth to Air, ‘Ceramic Review’, 44 Mar/Apr 1977 pg 7.
Broadcasts
BBC Private PassionsPrivate Passions
Private Passions is a weekly music discussion programme which has been running for over 10 years on BBC Radio 3, presented by the composer Michael Berkeley...
, Classic Arts Production, On 14 April 2001 Michael Berkeley's guest was Elizabeth Fritsch
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Ceramic Points of View: 'Optical Pot', by Elizabeth Fritsch Video Podcasts