Lucie Rie & Hans Coper Brown Earthenware Dish, 18.5 cm

Lucie Rie & Hans Coper brown earthenware dish, stamped with…
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Lucie Rie & Hans Coper brown earthenware dish, stamped with both of the artist's monograms, 18.5 cm diameter. Lucie Rie (nee Gomperz, 1902 - 1995) and Hans Coper (1920 - 1981). Dame Lucie Rie, Dbe was an Austrian-born, independent, British studio potter working in a time when most ceramicists were male. She is known for her extensive technical knowledge, her meticulously detailed experimentation with glazes and with firing and her unusual decorative techniques. Lucie Gomperz was born in Vienna, the youngest child of Gisela and Benjamin Gomperz, a Jewish medical doctor who was a consultant to Sigmund Freud. She had two Brothers, Paul Gomperz and Teddy Gomperz. Paul Gomperz was killed at the Italian front in 1917. She had a liberal upbringing. She studied pottery under Michael Powolny at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule, a school of Arts and Crafts associated with the Wiener Werkstatte, in which she enrolled in 1922. She set up her first studio in Vienna in 1925 and exhibited the same year at the Paris international exhibition. She was influenced by Neoclassicism, Jugendstil, modernism, and Japonism. In 1937, Rie won a silver medal at the Paris international exhibition (the exhibition for which Pablo Picasso painted Guernica). Rie had her first solo show as a potter in 1949. In 1938, Rie had fled Nazi Austria and emigrated to England. She settled in a small mews house in London where she lived and had her studio for the rest of her life. Around the time she emigrated, she separated from Hans Rie, a businessman whom she had married in Vienna in 1926, and their marriage was dissolved in 1940. For a time she provided accommodation to another Austrian emigre, the physicist Erwin Schrodinger. During and after the war, to make ends meet, she made ceramic buttons and jewellery for couture fashion outlets. Exactly matching ceramic buttons to the colours of the clothing to which they were to be attached stimulated Rie's experimentation and accuracy with glazes. Her buttons are now displayed at theVictoria and Albert Museum. In 1946, Rie hired Hans Coper, a fellow emigre, a young man with no experience in ceramics, to help her fire the buttons. Although Coper was interested in learning sculpture, she sent him to a potter named Heber Mathews, who taught him how to make pots on the wheel. Rie and Coper exhibited together in 1948. Coper became a partner in Rie's studio, where he remained until 1958.Their friendship lasted until Coper's death in 1981. Coper was born in Chemnitz, Germany, to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, and fled to the UK in 1939. He was interned as an enemy alien, and held in Canada for two years. On his return to Britain in 1942, he served as a conscientious objector in the Non-Combatant Corps. Coper's work was widely exhibited and collected even in his lifetime. Today, it is found in the collections of major museums around the world, including the metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum de Fundatie, the Sainsbury centre in Norwich UK, and York Art gallery, as well as in private collections worldwide.

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  • Art and Crafts Movement - The Arts and Crafts movement began in Britain around 1880 and quickly spread across America and Europe. The Movement took its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in London 1887. One of the most influential figures behind the Arts and Crafts movements was the designer and writer William Morris. The movement continued until about 1920 and was followed by the Art Deco movement.
  • Firing Crack - A firing crack is a crack in a porcelain or stoneware item that occurs whilst the item is in the kiln.They are usually caused by faulty design, where one part is thicker than the surrounding area, and being thicker it cools more slowly, setting up a stress with the surrounding area. Firing cracks are not often seen on modern mass produced porcelain, as the damaged items are discarded during prooduction. However they are seen in earlier items and artisan-produced objects.
  • Earthenware - A basic ceramic material that is fired at a low temperature. Earthenware is the basis of almost all ancient, medieval, Middle Eastern and European painted ceramics. After firing, the colour is the colour of the clay when it is dug from the ground: buff, brown and red. It is not waterproof until glazed. Creamware is a type of earthenware covered with a transparent lead glaze. Majolica, faience and delft are also earthenware covered in an opaque white tin glaze.
  • Modernism / Modernist - Modernist furniture and design emerged in the early to mid-20th century as a response to traditional styles of the 19th century and prior times, and a reflection of the technological and social changes of the time. Characteristics of Modernist furniture and design include simplicity and minimalism and clean lines and a lack of unnecessary ornamentation are key features. That form follows function is a fundamental principle of Modernist design, and furniture and objects are designed with a focus on their practical use.

    Modernist furniture often incorporates geometric shapes, such as cubes, rectangles, and circles. This reflects a departure from the more ornate and curvilinear forms of previous design styles. The furniture often prioritizes ergonomic design, ensuring that objects are comfortable and user-friendly. Modernist designers aimed to create designs that could be mass-produced, making good design accessible to a broader population.

    Prominent figures associated with Modernist furniture and object design include designers such as Hans Wegner, Verner Panton, Florence Knoll, Harry Bertoia and Ettore Sottsass
  • Jugendstil - The German and Austrian version of the Art Nouveau style and the other related styles that were expanding everywhere in Europe in the early 20th century.

    The name was derived from the title of the Munich cultural magazine, "Die Jugend", with the addition of "Stil", which translates as "youth style".

    Jugendstil encompasses all forms of architecture and art: industrial facilities, elevated-train systems, villas, churches, as well as the interior design of bars and coffee houses

    In Austria, Jugendstil developed also in various ways, mainly under the effect of the Viennese Secession and of the Wiener Werkstätte.
  • School of .... - In the opinion of the cataloguer, a work by a pupil or follower of the artist.

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