  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.
  
  
  Title
  Teardrop Bottle
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1951
  
  
  
  
  Makers
  
  
  Gertrud Natzler  (Artist)
  American, 1908 - 1971
  Otto Natzler  (Artist)
  American, 1908 - 2007
  
  
  
  Medium
  Earthenware, sulpher crater glaze
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 21 × 7 inches (53.3 × 17.8 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Ceramics
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Beatrice W. Rogers Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2019.57
  
  
  Copyright
  ----------
