About the Artwork
Among their signature ceramic forms, Gertrud Amon Natzler and Otto Natzler created heavy-walled vessels finished with glazes that flowed, shriveled, fissured, and blistered when fired. They referred to these works as “Crater” vessels. This monumental “Crater” bottle, one of the largest works the Natzlers ever made, evokes volcanic activity. As Otto once explained, in these vessels “I re-create, on a very small scale, what has been done by nature in the process of the earth’s creation.”
Two of the most influential ceramicists of the twentieth century, the Natzlers were Austrian Jews who met and trained in Vienna. In September 1938, a few months after Nazi Germany annexed Austria, they immigrated to the United States, where they settled in Los Angeles and became leading figures in the nascent studio craft movement.
Teardrop Bottle
1951
Gertrud Natzler (Artist) American, 1908 - 1971 Otto Natzler (Artist) American, 1908 - 2007
Earthenware, sulpher crater glaze
Overall: 21 × 7 inches (53.3 × 17.8 cm)
Ceramics
American Art before 1950
Museum Purchase, Beatrice W. Rogers Fund
2019.57
Copyright Not Evaluated
Markings
Signed, bottom: Natzler
Marked, paper label, bottom: C719
Provenance
(Bullock's Wilshire Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA).by 1966, Mr. and Mrs. Donald M. Jones (Pasadena, California, USA);
May 5, 2019, sale of the estate of Mrs. Donald M. Jones, consigned by (John Moran Auctioneers, Monrovia, California, USA), lot 82;
2019-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Gertrud Natzler; Otto Natzler, Teardrop Bottle, 1951, earthenware, sulpher crater glaze. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Beatrice W. Rogers Fund, 2019.57.
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