![Edwin e mary scheier, ciotola, 1959 ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Edwin_e_mary_scheier%2C_ciotola%2C_1959_ca.jpg)
Edwin Scheier (November 11, 1910 – April 20, 2008) was an American
artist, best known for his
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
works with his wife,
Mary Scheier.
Early life
Edwin Scheier was born in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
New York, to a Jewish German immigrant father, and an American mother. Scheier's father died shortly after his son's birth. Although his mother remarried, Scheier was left to his own devices, and dropped out of school before high school, in order to make a living. During the
Great Depression, he criss-crossed the nation before returning to New York City.
Although never formally trained, Scheier attended free seminars at
Cooper Union, and also worked for a
silversmith
A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...
and a ceramicist. He often examined works in the city's museums, and first, and briefly, met his future wife, Mary Goldsmith, in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. A period as a public puppeteer led him to take a position teaching crafts through the
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
. This led to other positions in the WPA, and it was through one of these roles, as a field supervisor of craft programs, that he again met Mary, who was directing a ceramics studio at the
Big Stone Gap
Big Stone Gap is a town in Wise County, Virginia, United States. The town was economically centered around the coal industry for much of its early development. The population was 5,643 at the 2010 census.
History
The community was formerly kno ...
Federal Art Gallery in
Abingdon, Virginia
Abingdon is a town in Washington County, Virginia, United States, southwest of Roanoke. The population was 8,376 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Washington County. The town encompasses several historically significant sites and f ...
. They were married on August 19, 1937, eventually resigned their posts with the WPA, and after a period as itinerant puppeteers, established a long-term partnership as
fine ceramicists.
[Phoenix New Times - Arts - Four Hands, One Heart](_blank)
/ref>
New Hampshire
As the Scheiers learned to collaborate, with Edwin's sculptural work being bonded to Mary's thrown works, their reputations grew. They received an offer to take positions at the University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...
, where Mary became Artist-in-Residence. The couple taught there for over 20 years before moving to Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
to study Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
n Indian arts and crafts.
During the summer of 1945, the Scheiers were invited to travel to Puerto Rico to train ceramic arts students, for a small pottery that the Puerto Rican government intended to establish. The Scheiers visited briefly, after which an administrator of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company
The Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) — es, Compañía de Fomento Industrial de Puerto Rico (or simply ''Fomento'')— is a government-owned corporation of Puerto Rico authorized and empowered to induce private capital ...
, or PRIDECO, traveled in America with Edwin, learning more about the ceramics industry.
Oaxaca
The Scheiers spent most of the 1960s in Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
. They examined, studied, and learned the techniques of the Zapotec people
The Zapotecs ( Valley Zapotec: ''Bën za'') are an indigenous people of Mexico. The population is concentrated in the southern state of Oaxaca, but Zapotec communities also exist in neighboring states. The present-day population is estimated at app ...
s in weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...
, painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, sculpture, and pottery. Many of Edwin's themes are enhanced in these mediums by the play of positive and negative space.
Later life
After years in Oaxaca, the Scheiers returned to the United States, settling in Green Valley, Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, where Edwin and Mary resided until their deaths. Until about a year before his death Edwin continued to create art work, though due to age and health, he was then creating "computer paintings" in his studio. The computer paintings came about primarily out of frustration and his deep desire to create. Though his heart would no longer allow him to lift heavy blocks of clay, his mind was still active. On an impulse he went to a computer store, purchased a computer, a color ink jet printer, and a graphical sketch pad - from this he began to create what he would call "computer paintings." As with pottery, his use of the computer was self-taught. Here was a man in his early 90s starting a new artistic method. He did not ask for help, he just did it.
Filmmaker Ken Browne examined the lives and works of the Scheiers in his 2000 documentary, ''Four Hands, One Heart''.
Mary died in May 2007 at 99.[Heydarpour, Roj]
Mary Scheier, 99, Creator of Elegant Pottery, Is Dead.
'The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', May 19, 2007. Accessed May 19, 2007. Edwin died less than a year later in April 2008 at the age of 97.
About 40 pieces of the Scheirs' work are on display at the University of New Hampshire Library, and the couple's work is also found in the permanent collection of the Currier Museum of Art
The Currier Museum of Art is an art museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, in the United States. It features European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. The permanent collection includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Mo ...
and the Herberger College of the Arts at Arizona State University. Their works have also been shown at the Newark Museum
The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, A ...
, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...
, and the Cranbrook Art Museum.
Themes and motifs
Edwin Scheier's work often employed symbols for life, birth, and rebirth.
The figures applied to the thrown vessels often involve people within people, womb-like, or within animals. Scheier often utilized stylistic techniques learned during his time in Oaxaca. His designs were often compared to those of Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...
but ultimately, as an artist, they were his own. In 1988, Edward Lebow described Scheier's figure work as showing “the humorous lyrical primitivism of the personal subconscious.”
Notes
References
* ''American Potters: Mary and Edwin Scheier'' by Michael K. Komanecky. The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire.
External links
''Happy Independence - Youthful Beginnings.''
''Potter with UNH ties dies at 97: Craftsman helped launch studio pottery''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheier, Edwin
1910 births
2008 deaths
American people of German-Jewish descent
Jewish American artists
Jewish sculptors
Artists from the Bronx
Sculptors from Arizona
Artists from Tucson, Arizona
Federal Art Project artists
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
American male sculptors
People from Green Valley, Arizona
Sculptors from New York (state)
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews