©1999-2015
|
Wisconsin Art Pottery 1930-2010 Program The Wisconsin Pottery Association (WPA) welcomes you to our 15th annual Pottery Show and Exhibit. Today’s exhibit features original pottery from WPA members & friends for today’s event. Eighty years of pottery in Wisconsin has involved thousands of people and many firms so the exhibit today is just a small sampling of the wide variety of art pottery that was created in that time. This program will give you some insight into some of these artists. During the Great Depression, jobs were hard to come by, especially in Central Wisconsin. From 1930 to 1942, the enterprise that Father John Wilitzer felt could help the members of his community find work was the Wisconsin Ceramics Company, more commonly known by the village it was located in as the Pittsville Pottery. Ernest Lechner worked for the pottery in 1936 producing hand thrown pieces. He left and went to Camark Pottery. James Wilkins, who came from Muncie Pottery, arrived in 1939. This is when most of the pieces that are found today were started to be produced. William Hallberg, who worked at the Ceramic Arts Studio, came to Pittsville in late 1941 and stay until the summer of 1942. Dorothy Kleifgen Faust was 19 and worked at the Pittsville Pottery from 1939 to 1941 where she worked as a finisher. Wales in the 40s isn’t the first place that you’d expect an accomplished New York writer to settle. Ed Heath, the author of Any Number Can Play and his life long ceramist partner William Chancey built The House on the Hill where William created his pottery and Ed had a second career writing cookbooks. Williams work was exhibited at the US Nationals in 1961 and as detailed in the Milwaukee Journal as “Particularly lovely are the glazes the young potter has achieved-delicate oranges, reds, rusts, purples, grays. Mr. Chancey believes, apparently, in "gilding the lily," for all of his work has added decorations, this frequently in gold.” The figurine was at the heart of the popularity of Madison Ceramic Arts Studio. Started in 1940 by Lawrence Rabbit he added Reuben Sands as a partner in 1941. Figurines arrived in 1942 when Betty Harrington was hired. She had brought a figurine made of clay from her back yard to be fired at the studio. Reuben Sands refused payment as long as she created new figurines. In the next 14 years she designed more than 800 figurines for the company. Sponsors
Related Pages:
|
