Mary Scheier (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Mary Goldsmith; May 9, 1908 – May 14, 2007) was a noted

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ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whi ...

, and the wife and artistic partner of

Edwin Scheier Edwin Scheier (November 11, 1910 – April 20, 2008) was an American artist, best known for his ceramic works with his wife, Mary Scheier. Early life Edwin Scheier was born in The Bronx, New York, to a Jewish German immigrant father, and an ...

Career

Born Mary Goldsmith in

Salem, Virginia Salem is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,346. It is the county seat of Roanoke County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combin ...

, she moved to

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in 1925 and studied art at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

, the

Grand Central School of Art The Grand Central School of Art was an American art school in New York City, founded in 1923 by the painters Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark and John Singer Sargent. The school was established and run by the Grand Central Art Galleries, an art ...

and the

New York School of Fine and Applied Arts Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatta ...

.Heydarpour, Roj
Mary Scheier, 99, Creator of Elegant Pottery, Is Dead.
'

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'', May 19, 2007. Accessed May 19, 2007. After a brief

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career in

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, she returned to Virginia and married Edwin Scheier in August 1937. She was head of a

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gallery at

Big Stone Gap, Virginia 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 ...

when they met during the

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. In 1939, the Scheiers set up their first studio, ''Hillcrock Pottery'', in

Glade Spring Glade Spring is a town in Washington County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,456 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kingsport– Bristol (TN)– Bristol (VA) Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Jo ...

, VA, making small sculptures and functional pottery using local clays. In 1940, they moved to

Durham, New Hampshire Durham is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 15,490 at the 2020 census, up from 14,638 at the 2010 census.United States Census BureauU.S. Census website 2010 Census figures. Retrieved March 23, 2011. D ...

, and both taught 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, mo ...

until 1968. She was an Artist-in-Residence at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, during the 1940s and 1950s. Sharing her husband's campus studio, Mary also replaced her husband when he served in the military during the Second World War. They then moved to the

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. Mary stopped producing pottery in the 1960s, when arthritis and health conditions prevented her from continuing. They finally moved to

Green Valley, Arizona Green Valley is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Pima County, Arizona, United States. The population was 22,616 at the 2020 census. Geography Green Valley is located along the western side of the Santa Cruz Ri ...

. She died in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the American Craft Museum and the University of New Hampshire Special Collections. Mary died just five days after celebrating her 99th birthday and after 69 years of marriage to Edwin.

Style

Mary was well known for her skills in creating thin walled thrown vessels. Combining her products with Edwin's applied designs and custom created glazes gained the couple wide recognition. She also created pieces that resembled pottery from the Sung dynasty, an era she admired. Mary focused on themes concerning primitive and biblical imagery, including topics of "human behaviour from Adam and Eve, birth, temptation to protection, motherhood and coupling with some of the designs showing people within people, womb-like or within animals."

Documentary

Mary Goldsmith and husband Scheier were the subjects of Ken Browne's film ''Four Hands, One Heart'', which aired repeatedly on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

stations.Lebow, Edward. January 11, 200
Four Hands One Heart.
''Phoenix New Times'' Goldsmith, with Scheier, was also the subject of a chapter of Lyndel King's 1988 book, "American Studio Ceramics: 1920-1950" published by the University Art Gallery at the University of Minnesota.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheier, Mary 1908 births 2007 deaths Artists from Roanoke, Virginia Artists from New York City University of New Hampshire faculty Art Students League of New York alumni Grand Central School of Art alumni Parsons School of Design alumni American ceramists Federal Art Project artists 20th-century American sculptors People from Green Valley, Arizona People from Salem, Virginia Sculptors from New York (state) 20th-century ceramists