Elsa Rady (July 29, 1943 – January 29, 2011) was an American ceramist. Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on July 29, 1943, Rady was the daughter of Lily Mehlman Rady, a former dancer for

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She wa ...

, and Simon Rady, a record executive and producer. By the age of seven she was taking ceramics classes with her older sister, Jane. From 1962 until 1966 she studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, where her instructors included Ralph Bacerra and

Otto and Vivika Heino Otto Heino (April 20, 1915 – July 16, 2009) and Vivika Heino (June 27, 1910 – September 1, 1995) were artists working in ceramics. They collaborated as a husband-and-wife team for thirty-five years, signing their pots ''Vivika + Otto'', regard ...

. She worked for two years in the 1960s at

Interpace Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, from 1934 to 1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) from 1962 to 1979, and Wedgwood from 1979 to 1983. Wedgwood c ...

, returning there from 1989 to 1994, and designed pieces for the Swid Powell company as well. During the

1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...

she lost 70 works, valued at $225,000, despite packing them in carpet tubing as a precaution. Rady kept a studio in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, for many years. She died in

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

after suffering from health problems for a while. Rady was the recipient of grants from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, in 1981, and the California Arts Council, in 1983. Several of her pieces are in the collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

; others are owned by 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 ...

; the Cooper-Hewitt; the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

; the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

; and the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. Rady died on January 29, 2011, in Culver City, California.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rady, Elsa 1943 births 2011 deaths American women ceramists 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists Artists from New York City Artists from Los Angeles People from Culver City, California Chouinard Art Institute alumni 21st-century American ceramists