Discover Jewish Potter Lucie Rie, as Elaine Bermitz explores her life and Northern connections.
Trying to find a Jewish artist who may be of interest to readers, I spoke to Alex Reuben, Owner of Contemporary Six, The Gallery in Manchester. He immediately suggested Lucie Rie, one of the world’s most highly sought after ceramicists, whose story is as exciting as her work. Alex had some of her pieces in the gallery and I made an appointment to see them the next week and to learn more.
Since opening Contemporary Six 12 years ago, Alex has built up a considerable dealership in fine art and has thousands of contacts in the painting field, so I wondered why the change of focus.
“It’s not a change, more that I wanted to expand the offer to my clients and believe ceramics sits perfectly with the artwork on the walls that I exhibit. They are such a lovely way for individuals to start collecting fine art, with pieces being beautiful to the eye, tactile, and functional!”
Alex showed me one of the pieces by Lucie Rie and explained why Rie’s work is so highly prized and collectible and is displayed in many large public galleries. Lucie Rie came from an integrated but observant Jewish family; born in 1902 in Austria, her father was an eminent doctor and her uncle an archaeologist. She studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule – the University of Applied Arts on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, a very modernist institution. Having gained her qualifications, she began producing domestic ceramics which departed from the traditional ornate work. Making many firm connections but aware of the worsening situation for Jews pre-war, she came to England, while her husband went to the USA.
By the time the war started, she had settled in London, at 18 Albion Mews, a studio cottage near Hyde Park where she would live and work for the rest of her life.
Seeking to get her parents out of Vienna and worried about her brothers she was still building close relationships with Bernard Leach and Hans Coper, a Jewish refugee who she trained as a potter and with whom she formed Rie and Coper, a partnership which lasted for the rest of his life, though by 1939 she had separated from her husband.
During the war she produced buttons for designers who, due to the lack of metal, were attracted to her highly decorated and individual pieces. A collection of these can be seen in the Victoria & Albert museum. The rest she donated to the designer Issey Miyake, who designed her dresses in return.
As her reputation grew, she was invited to show at The Festival of Britain at The South Bank. This was a major breakthrough commercially and her works were also noticed by the Council of Industrial Design, which, through its Touring Rooms exhibition, took the best designers to places in the North of England. The aims of the festival were to showcase the best of British design and to inspire production of consumer goods of the highest quality and design. In addition, on request of the organisers she produced vases and beakers as souvenirs for the 1951 show.
Her style of production was unique. She did not fire her pots after the first glazing but etched a pattern on the glaze, mixing further colours allowing them to fuse, forming reflective colours onto the surfaces. These produced a fragile finish to the restrained elegance of the pieces.
Throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, her pots were sought after by both collectors and commercial organisations as far away as New Zealand and her reputation was secure. She continued working even after the death of Hans Coper and remained at her home near Hyde Park.
Though she left Austria with nothing except her kiln she became the foremost ceramicist in the UK, with a huge international reputation.
Her story is similar to other eminent people who lost everything during the war. Her work was sought after by descendants of the Low-Beer family, whose factory was taken from them by the Nazis in 1938. It was given to Oscar Schindler, whose famous contribution to saving Jews from the camps was told in the film Schindlers List. A fitting place for a proposed museum which will act as a hub connecting the factory with those people whose lives were saved.
It also aims to deepen people’s connection with the archives and testimonies of those who stories are told.
There will be five sections to the museum, and Lucie Rie’s vase will sit alongside the film works of Arnold Lustig, the drawings of Joseph Bau, and the textiles of Anni Albers and Otti Berger in the Saves the World Entire section.
A long journey for the small woman who dedicated her life to producing the perfectly glazed object, and an even longer one for the object itself, which is intended to stay in the museum for a good while.
