Natzler: Memorial Exhibition January 19, 2008

Ceramic work of the renowned ceramists Gertrud and Otto Natzler will be exhibited at Couturier Gallery, opening January 19, 2008. The exhibition will include the collaborative works from the 1940s through the 1970s as well as Otto Natzler’s own work from the 1970s through the ‘90s which he began to produce after the death of Gertrud in 1971. The exhibition will have an emphasis on Otto Natzler, as it is a memorial tribute to the artist who passed away April 7, 2007, and whose pioneering work in developing thousands of glazes helped transform the course of contemporary ceramics. A number of works in this show have rarely been exhibited and will be a unique opportunity for spectators to view.

The Natzlers, two of this century’s most influential ceramists, came directly to Los Angeles in October 1938, fleeing their native Vienna, Austria because of the Nazi threat. They brought with them modernist European ideas and a tradition in ceramics that had not been seen in the United States. They set up their studio within several months of their arrival in L.A., and began exhibiting their work almost immediately. To supplement their meager
income from the few sales they were initially able to make, they would also have to accept students thus disseminating their skills and influence early on (one of their first students was Beatrice Wood who learned from Gertrud to throw pots and from Otto about glazes and glazing). Their influence on other ceramists, including Glen Lukens, Laura Anderson, is both remarkably noticeable and legendary.

Gertrud and Otto were not only married in life, but professionally as well, collaborating on all their work- Gertrud as the master potter, and Otto as the master glazer. Gertrud’s inventive and simple, elegant forms (developed while still in Austria) was in part a reaction against the decorative elements of the Vienna Secessionist movement, part oriental in form, and part chutzpah in its eggshell thinness. She taught herself to produce vessels (bowls, vases, jars, bottles and chalices) that are visually sensual and weightless, with a focus on the pureness of the form itself.

Through the years of trial by fire (literally) and the diligence of a scientist who experimented incessantly and kept copious detailed notes enabling him to replicate so-called “accidents” in the kiln, he invented over 2,000 glazes used to complete an exquisite ceramic forms thrown by his collaborator and late wife, Gertrud Natzler. Among these are glazes that many have tried to imitate such as the crater and lava glazes with their volatile, explosive and bubbling surfaces; the crystalline glaze that resembles tiny stars in the heavens; the hare’s-fur glaze with its flawless striations; and the iridescent glazes that give a special luster to the surface of the vessels. The glazes, almost without exception, appear as cross sections of the earth, as if the kiln in which they were created echoed the heat of the earth’s core.

The exhibition history of this illustrious couple is too comprehensive to include here. It began almost immediately upon arriving in Los Angeles in 1938 and requests for exhibits continue to this day. In addition to gallery shows, they have exhibited in over 60 museums world-wide where the works have also become part of their permanent collections. A complete exhibition and collections list is available upon request.

For further information or photographs, please contact the gallery.

Official Website: http://www.couturiergallery.com/