Elizabeth Fritsch

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 1940) is a British studio potter and ceramic artist born into a Welsh family in Whitchurch on the Shropshire border. Her innovative hand built and painted pots are often influenced by ideas from music, painting, literature, landscape and architecture.

Biography

Hand-Built pot by Elizabeth Fritsch (YORYM-2004

Elizabeth Fritsch is a studio potter and ceramic artist. She uses fine technically proficient hand built coiling techniques; architectural ceramic form, optical effects and surface design which, are usually hand painted with coloured slips. The

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...

are biscuit fired and often re-fired a number of times. Each Fritsch pot is unique, individual and distinctive. They are usually displayed in selected groups and themes set to the artist's requirements. Fritsch initially studied at the

Birmingham School of Music The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a music school, drama school and concert venue in Birmingham, England. It provides professional education in music, acting, and related disciplines up to postgraduate level. It is a centre for scholarly re ...

studying harp, and then piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1958 to 1964; but she later took up ceramics under

Hans Coper Hans Coper (8 April 1920 – 16 June 1981), was an influential German-born British studio potter. His work is often coupled with that of Lucie Rie due to their close association, even though their best known work differs dramatically, with R ...

and

Eduardo Paolozzi Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art. Early years Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March ...

at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

from 1968 to 1971. Adopting her career name from her marriage to Jean Mathis-Fritsch (m.1966-71) she had a son Bertie born in 1966. In the seventies Fritsch, was one of the first of a group of progressive 'New Ceramics' to emerge from the

, along with other ceramicists including Alison Britton,

Carol McNicoll Carol McNicoll (born 1943) is an English studio potter whose work is mainly decorative slipcast ware, she is credited with helping to transform the British ceramics scene in the late 1970s. Biography McNicoll was born in Birmingham in 1943, and ...

and Jacqueline Poncelet. Under David Queensbury, the group formed a shift and influence in British ceramic art, breaking away from the more traditional forms, colour, design and function of the more utilitarian ceramics that had preceded. Fritsch lived and worked at Digswell Arts Trust from 1975 to 1983. Her daughter Ruby Hughes was born in 1980 and in the same year was awarded the

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

Bursary for a fictional archaeology project. This project went into developing an important new body of work and shift in the artist career.'Pots from Nowhere'(fictional archaeology) was shown at the Royal College of Art by Queensberry Hunt in 1984. In 1985, Fritsch set up a studio in London. Since her first show in 1972, Fritsch has had a number of solo shows. In 1996 and 2001 she was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Ceramics. Fritsch's work is represented in major art collections and museums in more than nine countries and her work is represented in major British art museum collections. A major retrospective was held at the

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff ( cy, Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd) is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Welsh Gov ...

, in 2010, featuring a complete range of her most significant studio pottery and recent pieces. Since the late 1970s Fritsch has considered "the space between the second and third dimensions", in her work; a concept she first described as "two-and-a-half dimensions" with her distinctive rhythmic patterns and optical effects. ''Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels'' also marked her 70th birthday.

Awards

*2001: Shortlisted for Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts 2001: Ceramics *1996: Shortlisted for Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts 1996: Ceramics *1995: Awarded

:Commander of the British Empire *1995: Elected Senior Fellowship,

*1993: Gold Medali, Visuelle Spiele, International Handwerksmesse München, Germany *1987:

Bernard Leach Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery". Biography Early years (Japan) Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née ...

Centenary Post Office Stamp issue with

Lucie Rie Dame Lucie Rie, (16 March 1902 – 1 April 1995) () was an Austrian-born British studio potter. Life Early years and education Lucie Gomperz was born in Vienna, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary, the youngest child of Benjamin Gomperz, a Jewis ...

*1980:

Bursary for Fictional Archaeology project *1976: Gold Medal, International Ceramics Competition, Sopot, Poland *1972: Prize Winner,

Royal Copenhagen Royal Copenhagen, officially the Royal Porcelain Factory ( da, Den Kongelige Porcelænsfabrik), is a Danish manufacturer of porcelain products and was founded in Copenhagen in 1775 under the protection of Danish Dowager Queen Juliane Marie. It i ...

Jubilee *1970: Silver Medal

: Herbert Read Memorial Prize

Museum and public collections

Aberystwyth Arts Centre Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Welsh: ''Canolfan y Celfyddydau Aberystwyth'') is an arts centre in Wales, located on Aberystwyth University's Penglais campus. One of the largest in Wales, it comprises a theatre (312 seats), concert hall (900 seats), s ...

, Aberystwyth, Wales *

Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884 in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900, it received the art ...

& Museum, Aberdeen *

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local ...

, Birmingham *

Bolton Museum Bolton Museum is a public museum and art gallery in the town of Bolton, England, owned by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. The museum is housed within the grade II listed Le Mans Crescent near Bolton Town Hall and shares its main entrance ...

and Art Gallery, Bolton *

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England. The museum is situated in Clifton, about from the city centre. As part of Bristol Culture it is run by the Bristol City Council with no entrance fee. It holds ...

, Bristol *

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

, Great Britain *

Crafts Council The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary craft in the United Kingdom, and is funded by Arts Council England. History The Crafts Advisory Committee was formed in 1971 to advise the Minister for the Arts, David Eccles ...

, London *

Laing Art Gallery The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is located on New Bridge Street West. The gallery was designed in the Baroque style with Art Nouveau elements by architects Cackett & Burns Dick and is now a Grade II listed building. It ...

, Newcastle, Tyne & Wear *

Lotherton Hall Lotherton Hall is a country house near Aberford, West Yorkshire, England. It lies a short distance from the A1(M) motorway, equidistant between London and Edinburgh. It is one of nine sites in the Leeds Museums & Galleries group. There has b ...

, Leeds, Yorkshire *

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three ...

, Manchester *

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art MIMA, or Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, is a contemporary art gallery based in the centre of Middlesbrough, England. The gallery was formally launched on Sunday 27 January 2007; since 2014 it has been part of Teesside University. Hist ...

, Middlesbrough *

National Museums Liverpool National Museums Liverpool, formerly National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, comprises several museums and art galleries in and around Liverpool, England. All the museums and galleries in the group have free admission. The museum is a non ...

, Merseyside *

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

, Edinburgh *

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

, *

Norwich Castle Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...

Museum & Art Gallery, Norwich *The

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

, Cambridge *

Victoria and 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 ...

, London *

York Art Gallery York Art Gallery is a public art gallery in York, England, with a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. It closed for major redevelopment in 2013, reopening in summer of 2015. T ...

, York * Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen, Denmark * Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France *

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (''Museum of Art and Design Hamburg'') is a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts in Hamburg, Germany. It is located centrally, near the Hauptbahnhof. History The museum was founded in 1874, fol ...

, Germany *

Museum of Design, Zürich The Museum of Design, Zürich (German: ''Museum für Gestaltung Zürich'') is a museum for industrial design, visual communication, architecture, and craft in Zurich, Switzerland. Overview The museum is part of the Department of Cultural An ...

Museum Bellerive, Zurich, Switzerland *

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 ...

, New York *

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, Canberra, Australia *

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, Melbourne, Australia * Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia *

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo The in Tokyo, Japan, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting modern Japanese art. This Tokyo museum is also known by the English acronym MOMAT (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). The museum is known for its collection of 20th-centu ...

, Japan

Solo exhibitions

*2010:

, Wales, UK. ''Dynamic Structures: Painted Vessels'', October 2010– January 2011 *2008:

Fine Art Society The Fine Art Society is a gallery based in both London and in Edinburgh's New Town (originally Bourne Fine Art, established 1978). The New Bond Street, London gallery closed its doors in August 2018 after being occupied by The Fine Art Society si ...

- London November -December. *2007: Retrospective,

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought to ...

, London *2007: Anthony Hepworth Gallery, Bath *2000: Metaphysical Vessels, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts *2000: Memory of Architecture, Part II, Besson Gallery, London *1998: Sea Pieces, Contemporary Applied Arts, London *1995–6: Retrospective touring to Munich, Karlsruhe, Halle and Bellerive, Zurich *1995: Metaphysical Pots, Bellerive Museum *1994–5: Order and Chaos, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, New Mexico *1994: Osiris Gallery, Brussels *1993–5: Vessels from Another World, Northern Centre for the Contemporary Arts, Sunderland, travelling to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Norwich, UK *1992–3: Retrospective, Pilscheur Fine Art, London *1991: Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany *1990: Cross Rhythms and Counterpoint, Edinburgh, Scotland *1978: Leeds Galleries, Temple Newsham; travelled to Glasgow, Bristol, Gateshead, Bolton, and V&A, London *1976: British Craft Centre, London *1974: Waterloo Place Gallery, London *1972: Bing and Grondahl, Copenhagen

Bibliography

Edward Lucie-Smith John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith (born 27 February 1933), known as Edward Lucie-Smith, is a Jamaican-born English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster. He has been highly prolific in these fields, writing or editing over a hundred ...

on Elizabeth Fritsch: ''Vessels from another World, Metaphysical pots Painted Stoneware'', Bellew Publishing, 1993. #Peter Dormer and David Cripps “Elizabeth Fritsch in Studio – A view”, In Studio Series, Bellew, London, 1985. #Elizabeth Fritsch, pots about music. Authors: Elizabeth Fritsch, David Cripps, Leeds City Art Gallery (England), David Queensberry, Alison Britton, Ian Bennett. Publisher, Leeds Art Galleries, 1978, ASIN B0007AT9X2 #E. Cameron & P. Lewis, ''Potters on Pottery'', Elizabeth Fritsch, pgs. 62-69 Evans Brothers, London 1976.

Articles

#''The Wall Street Journal'
"A New Spin on Ceramics" by Margaret Studer
18 May 2006 #Moira Vincentelli ''Women & Ceramics, Gendered Vessels'', Manchester University Press, 2000, p. 249. , #Garth Clark ''The Potter's Art'', Phaidon 1995, pp. 200–201. , #John Houston ''The Abstract Pot'' forms of expression and decoration by nine artist potters, Bellew Publishing, 1991. #Fischer Fine Art (1986) ''Nine Potters: Bernard Leach, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, Michael Cardew, Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, Elizabeth Fritsch, Ewen Henderson, Elizabeth Raeburn, Claudi Casanovas'', Catalogue of an exhibition held at Fisher Fine Art, 1986. ASIN B001ON0RX2 #John Russell Taylor, "Elizabeth Fritsch: Pots About Music" ''Ceramic Review'', 58 Jul/Aug 1979 pgs 30–33. #J.D.H. Catleugh "Recent Pots: Improvisations from Earth to Air", ''Ceramic Review'', 44 Mar/Apr 1977 pg 7.

Broadcasts and podcasts

British library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Sounds Oral History
On 6 July 2004, (1 of 14) National Life Stories Collection: Crafts' Lives BBC

Private Passions ''Private Passions'' is a weekly music discussion programme that has been running since 15 April 1995 on BBC Radio 3, presented by the composer Michael Berkeley. The production was formerly made by Classic Arts Productions, a British radio a ...

Classic Arts Production
On 14 April 2001 Michael Berkeley's guest was Elizabeth Fritsch Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Ceramic Points of View: 'Optical Pot'
by Elizabeth Fritsch Video Podcasts'Ceramics Points of View' collaboration between The National Electronic and Video Archive of the Crafts and the V&A. Elizabeth Fritsch, 'Optical Pot', stoneware, height 311mm, width 232mm, 1980. Museum no. C.13-1981

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritsch, Elizabeth 1940 births Living people People from Whitchurch, Shropshire 20th-century British women artists 21st-century British women artists Alumni of Birmingham Conservatoire Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Alumni of the Royal College of Art British potters Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Women potters British women ceramicists