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Born in Shropshire, United Kingdom in 1940, Elizabeth Fritsch has been a leading figure in British ceramics since the 1970s. The artist began her studies at the Royal Academy of Music which she attended between 1958 and 1964 as a student of the harp and piano. She then changed directions and took up ceramics at the Royal College of Art in London, working with Hans Coper from 1968 to 1971.
Elizabeth Fritsch’s work is characterized by its sharp profiles and architectural qualities. She hand builds her vessels from stoneware using the coil method, and the resulting surface is then meticulously smoothed. She colors her works with dry matte slips, often applying geometric motifs. Fritsch has a preference for exhibiting her work in small, carefully arranged groups, creating a sophisticated interplay between the shapes of the vessels and their decoration.
Speaking about her influences, Fritsch has said;
The metaphysical function of certain kinds of buildings is to convey transcendence, spiritual exaltation, serenity, et cetera. This is most potent when there is an inter-relationship with music or the airy element, appearance and disappearance or extreme drama, as in monasteries, cathedrals, temples, tombs, and theatres. Even more than in such intentionally metaphysical buildings, certain mundane physically functional architecture carries a strong other-worldly poetic charge- all the stronger perhaps for being an unintentional by-product of the physical function, as in, for example, lighthouses, windmills, telescopes, bridges, boats, dams. It is the dangerous elemental relationships which make precision engineered buildings such as these breathtaking. A third strand of influence comes from the dramatic architecture created by the elements in nature: such as, - to mention just a few examples from geology- mountaintops (Ziggurat towers, pyramids), cliffs, chasms, waves.
Elizabeth Fritsch frequently exhibits on an international scale, and her work is represented in numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
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Awards
1996 Shortlisted for Jerwood Prize, with exhibition traveling to Galerie Marianne Heller,
Heidelberg
1995 CBE and Senior Fellowship, Royal College of Art
1993 Gold Medalist, Visuelle Spiele, International Handwerksmesse München
1972 Prize Winner, Royal Copenhagen Jubilee
1970 Silver Medal Royal College of Art: Herbert Read Memorial Prize
Education
1968-71 Royal College of Art, MA Ceramics (Distinction)
1958-63 Royal Academy of Music, Post Graduate Diploma
Birmingham School of Music, Music (Teaching) BA Hons
Museum Collections
Belle Rive Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
City Art Gallery, Bristol, England
City Art Gallery, Manchester, England
Crafts Advisory Committee, London, England
Kusnst Industry Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
Leeds Art Galleries, Lotherton Hall, England
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Musée Des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Museum of Decorative Arts, Montréal, Canada
Museum Für Kunst Und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan
National Ceramic Collection, Coburg, Germany
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Welsch National Collection, Aberystwyth, Wales
Shigaraki Museum, Shigaraki, Japan
Kunstsammlungen-Coburg, Germany
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2010 Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales
2008 Fine Art Society, London, United Kingdom
2007 Retrospective, Bonhams, London, United Kingdom
2007 Anthony Hepworth Gallery, Bath, United Kingdom
2000 Metaphysical Vessels, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Memory of Architecture, Part II, Gallerie Besson, London, United Kingdom
1998 Sea Pieces, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, United Kingdom
1995 Metaphysical Pots, Bellrive Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
1994-5 Order and Chaos, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1994 Osiris Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
1994 Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1993-5 Vessels from Another World, Northern Centre for the Contemporary Arts,
Sunderland, traveling to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Norwich,
United Kingdom
1992 Pilscheur Fine Art, London, United Kingdom
1991 Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany
1990 Cross Rhythms and Counterpoint, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
1989 Elizabeth Fritsch, Gallerie Besson, London, United Kingdom
1978 Leeds Galleries, Temple Newsham; traveled to Glasgow, Bristol, Gateshead,
Bolton, and V&A, London, United Kingdom
1976 British Craft Center, London, United Kingdom
1974 Waterloo Place Gallery, London, United Kingdom
1972 Bing and Grondahl, Copenhagen, Denmark
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