Zeisel, Eva (1906—)

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Zeisel, Eva (1906—)

Hungarian-born American ceramist and designer. Name variations: Eva Polanyi Stricker. Born on November 11, 1906, in Budapest, Hungary; studied painting under Vaszari at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, 1923–25; apprenticed at Yakob Karpanscik's pottery, Budapest, 1924–25; married Hans Zeisel (a sociologist and lawyer), in 1938; children: John and Jean.

Selected work:

Pitcher in earthenware (for Schramberger Majolika Fabrik, 1929–30); Tea service in yellow and red glazed porcelain (for Dulevo Porcelain Factory, 1934–36); Tea service in black, yellow, and orange underglazed porcelain (for Dulevo Porcelain Factory, 1934–36); Diamond Design tea service in black and red underglazed porcelain (for Dulevo Porcelain Factory, 1942–43); Museum dinner service in clear glazed porcelain (for Castleton China Company, 1945); Town and Country earthenware dinner service (for Red Wing Pottery, 1945); Hallcraft Tomorrow's Classic white glazed earthenware dinner service (for Hall China Company, 1949–50); Chair in tubular steel (for Chicago Metalcraft/Richards Morgenthau and Company, 1950–51); Stoneware dinner service (for Western Stoneware Company, 1952); Hallcraft Century white glazed earthenware dinner service (for Hall China Company, 1955); Form Eva white glazed porcelain dinner service (for Rosenthal Glasund Porzellan, 1957–58); Lidded casserole, teapot, andcreamer in white and blue glazed porcelain (for Noritake, 1963); Lidded bottle in porcelain (for Zsolnay Porcelain Factory, 1983); Vase in porcelain (for Zsolnay Porcelain Factory, 1983); Set of majolica bowls (for the Staatliche Mojolika Manufadtur, 1989).

Selected exhibitions:

Museum of Modern Art, New York (1946); Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Clearwater (1950); Art Institute of Chicago (1985); Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Montreal (1986); Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Vienna (1987); Konstindustrumuseum, Helsinki (1987); Museum of Decorative Arts, Amersfoort (1988).

Born Eva Polanyi Stricker in 1906 in Budapest, Hungary, Eva Zeisel began her artistic career in 1923 at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest where she studied painting with Vaszari. In 1924, she also began an apprenticeship at Yakob Karpanscik's pottery. She left both of these educational avenues in 1925 to work as a ceramics designer at Kilspester Earthenware Factory, also in Budapest. During the next seven years, she worked for several ceramic manufacturers. She left Hungary from 1932 to 1937 to accept a position as a freelance designer and art director for three companies in Leningrad, USSR—Lomanossova Porcelain Factory, Dulevo Porcelain Factory, and the China Glass Industry. However, in 1935, while working in Moscow, Zeisel was arrested and expelled to Germany two years later, under Stalin's orders. In 1938, she escaped to Great Britain and then traveled to the United States. That same year, she married sociologist and lawyer Hans Zeisel. They had two children, Jean and John. In the United States, Zeisel freelanced out of New York and Chicago for a variety of manufacturers, including Red Wing Pottery, Hall China Company, Rosenthal Porcelain, Loza Gina, Manioli, Noritake, Nikkon Toki, Zsolnay Factory, and others. She also taught industrial design at New York's Pratt Institute from 1939 until 1953. In 1954, she taught for one year at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Following World War II, the United States encouraged the design of household consumer goods. Of the many items that Zeisel designed, the most acclaimed was the dinnerware set sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1946. In an attempt to bring good design to the American public, MoMA commissioned a set of china called "Museum Shape," which Zeisel designed for the Castleton China firm. As the first contemporary, translucent, porcelain dinnerware produced in the United States for a general audience, the line competed with those of traditional European porcelain manufacturers such as Rosenthal.

Throughout her career, Zeisel renounced specific schools of design, preferring to create out of the needs of the individuals who use the items. Like the Bauhaus school, however, her early design activities indicate her preference to work from inside the industry rather than impose a set of values and standards from the outside. Her conviction that good design should be based on communication with an audience, in addition to utility and esthetics, separated her from the strictly functionalist philosophy of modernism. As noted in Contemporary Designers, "In an era inspired by machine iconography, Zeisel formulated a design philosophy based on familiar and friendly associations for the greatest number of people." Although Zeisel's designs have shown influences from the shapes and decoration of her native Hungary's traditional, handmade peasant pottery, she tried to design items that were aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. "The locus of the Zeisel magic is in her hands: she uses them to describe anything visual—shaping air into arcs and bowls—and to design despite her poor vision," writes Karen E. Steen . "She cuts out paper silhouettes, then works back and forth with a modeler, gesturing to explain a curve, until the piece is correct. As a result, her designs have an expressiveness that's rare in household objects."

Zeisel has received numerous honors and awards over the years, including the Hungarian Exhibition Honor Award in 1926, a National Endowment for the Arts Senior Grant in 1982, the Hungarian Order of the Star in 1984, and honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Art in London in 1988, and the Parsons School of Design in 1991. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, and collections are on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Toward the end of the 20th century, Zeisel turned to different designs, including coffee tables, book shelves, dining room tables, room dividers, and chairs. A documentary on her life and work was underway.