Rudolf Staffel was an American ceramic artist.

Life

He was initially interested in painting, and took several art courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
After a visit to the Wiener Workstation exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History

Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...

, he turned his attention to glass blowing.
Staffel went to Mexico City to learn this craft, but was unable to secure an apprenticeship.
While in Mexico, he became fascinated with the Aztec

Aztec

The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...

, Incan

Inca Empire

The Inca Empire, or Inka Empire , was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century...

, and Mayan

Maya civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...

 pottery, and apprenticed himself to a Mexican potter.
He worked in stoneware

Stoneware

Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic ware with a fine texture. Stoneware is made from clay that is then fired in a kiln, whether by an artisan to make homeware, or in an industrial kiln for mass-produced or specialty products...

 through the early 1950s.
In the mid 1950s, he turned his cool to porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

, the medium for which he is best known.
He began to create hundreds of small white translucent vessels that he called Light Gatherers. At first, the Light Gatherers were painted with bright colored stripes, and made in conventional shapes, such as vases, plates, and chalices.
As they evolved, the forms became more abstract, and the colored stripes were eliminated.

Rudolf Staffel taught at the Tyler School of Art

Tyler School of Art

The Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art, usually just referred to as Tyler School of Art is Temple University's school of art, which confers BFA and MFA degrees. The school was originally founded by sculptors Stella Elkins Tyler and Boris Blai on a separate 14-acre estate in Elkins Park...

 in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania from 1940, until his retirement in 1978.
In 1997, he had a retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...

.

Sources

• Jeffri, Joan (ed.), The Craftsperson Speaks, Artists in Varied Media Discuss Their Crafts, New York, Greenwood Press, 1992.
• "Oral history interview with Rudolf Staffel, 1987 July 17-Aug. 6", Smithsonian Archives of American Art