Eva Zeisel and Her Playful Search for Beauty
Eva Striker Zeisel and her playful search for beauty drove her to make waves as the first female potter in her guild, and lead to create pieces that now reside in museums all over the world.
Her work as a “maker of useful things” were often abstractions of natural forms and human relationships. As a Jewish Hungarian-born American industrial designer of both the Modernism and Bauhaus Movement, Eva had an eye for the abstract.
“The pleasure of making things beautiful or useful involves your feelings as well as your thinking. When your original sketch evolves into a tangible, three-dimensional object, your heart is anxiously following the process of your work. And the love involved in making it is conveyed to those for whom you made it.” -Eva
Born: Budapest, Hungary, 1906
Education: Budapest's Magyar Képzőművészeti Akadémia
Residence: New York, NY
Design movement: Modernism, Bauhaus Movement
Other notable designers of the time: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Peter Behrens
“When you begin your work, nothing exists. When it is finished it looks as if it just happened, spontaneously, effortlessly, convincingly. It looks as though it had been there all along.” -Eva
Eva Striker Zeisel was born into a wealthy, highly educated Jewish family in Budapest, Hungry in 1906. Her mother, Laura Polányi Striker, was a historian and the first woman to receive a PhD from the University of Budapest.
Zeisel had a passion for art and enrolled at Budapest's Magyar Képzőművészeti Akadémia with the a dream of becoming a painter. After completing her education, she became an apprentice to Jakob Karapancsik to learn ceramics and support her painting career. Thanks to her apprenticeship, she was the first woman to qualify as a journeyman in the Hungarian Guild of Chimney Sweeps, Oven Makers, Roof Tilers, Well Diggers and Potters.
Over the next two years, she spent her time creating playful dinnerware, tea sets, vases, inkwells, and other ceramic items in Germany. During this time she also met and fell in love with Alexander Weissberg, a physicist from Russia. A trip to Russia quickly turned into a five year stay. After working in Russia as a successful designer for several years, she was named artistic director of the Soviet china and glass industry.
On May 26, 1936, Zeisel was arrested in Moscow, falsely accused of participating in an assassination plot against Stalin. After being held for 16 months, 12 of which where spent in solitary confinement, she was deported to Vienna, Austria. She took the last train out of Vienna to England to meet up with her soon to be husband Hans Zeisel. Together they sailed to America with $67 in their pockets.
Once they arrived in America, Zeisel was able to re-establish herself as a designer and began teaching at the Pratt Institute in New York City. One of her first designs was for Sears, Roebuck and her career continued to gain momentum as she worked on project Hall China, Red Wing China, Castleton China, Norleans Meito, Western Stoneware, Hyalyn, Phillip Rosenthal, Mancioli, Federal Glass, Heisey Glass, Noritake, and Nikkon Toki, and many others.
Throughout her career, Zeisel received many honors for her work including: a commission from Castleton China and The Museum of Modern Art to design a line of fine porcelain dinnerware presented in an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in l947, she received a senior award from the National Endowments for the Arts (l982), she was the subject of a touring exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, her work was featured by the Traveling Exhibition Service and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal in l984 and in 2005 she received Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's National Design Award in the category of Lifetime Achievement.
Ziesel has permanent collections in Brohan Museum in Berlin, The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and more. She produced new designs up until her death in 2011 at the long-lived age of 105.
“The designer must understand that form does not follow function nor does form follow a production process. For every use and for every production process there are innumerable equally attractive solutions.” -Eva
Town and Country Salt and Pepper Shakers c. 1945
Belly Button Room Divider manufactured by Manifattura Mancioli, c. 1957
The Century Line
Sources: “Eva Zeisel.” Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18043295/bio.
“Eva Zeisel.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Zeisel.