When it comes to pottery, which factor is more important: form or glaze? In truth, both are consequential. But, if I were forced to choose only one of them, I would have to say that the glazing is most important. Form can be easily copied. A ceramicist can easily make a mould based upon the shape of another artist's finished piece. In fact, pottery factories would sometimes sell their discontinued moulds to competitors. Glazes, however, are much more difficult to decipher and control. A small variation in glaze ingredients, their application, kiln temperature, firing time, or cooling process can result in significant differences in outcome. And the process of figuring-out (and then duplicating) a new glaze is filled with numerous trials and errors. The glaze master must keep precise and comprehensive notes of every glazing trial. No glaze—as sensational as it may be—is useful to a commercial workshop if that effect cannot be duplicated consistently. For this reason, glaze masters were the Top Guns of the art pottery workshops. And glaze masters would never share their glaze secrets with competing ceramics artists!
Of all the West German Modernist ceramics workshops, Ruscha probably is my favorite—especially the work of their glaze master, Otto Gerharz. "Ruscha" (a compound of the founder's first and last names, Rudolph Schardt) was founded in Rheinbach, Germany in 1948. Gerharz joined the company as production director in 1951. He probably was the artist most responsible for pioneering the crusty, dripping, volcanic glazes which are synonymous with West German Modernist pottery. Alongside Gerharz, Ruscha engaged other important names in German ceramics: Kurt Tschörner, Ernst Beren, Hans Welling, Adele Bolz, Heinz Siery, and Juhl Johann.
The West German Modernist vase shown above, made in the 1960's, is a tip-of-the-hat to Classic Chinese ceramics in two important ways. First there is the voluptuous, "double gourd" form—an age-old Chinese ceramics shape (perhaps tweaked here for the Modernist sensibility). Secondly, for centuries, only the Chinese were able to reliably reproduce true red glazes. The color red had always been one of the most "temperamental" of the hues—and a small change in chemical ingredients, temperature or timing could result in disappointing effects. The Chinese, despite their fairly primitive kiln technology (without modern thermostats, fueled by wood) were able to produce sensational red glazes. Western ceramicists tried in vain—throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries—to duplicate the Chinese artistry. The Europeans couldn't do it—and the Chinese were not sharing their secret recipe! Of course, by the time our vase (shown above) was made (in the 1960's), reliable modern glazes had been developed—and red was no longer the elusive glaze color it once was.
Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome piece of Ruscha pottery.
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