Lucie Rie

Lucie Gomperz was born in Vienna in 1902. Her Jewish origins forced her to move to England, particularly London, during the rise of the Third Reich. The surname by which she is best known is "Rie": she acquired following a short-lived marriage.

Lucie attended the arts and crafts school at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna where she began working with clay.

 

The first objects to have inspired her were archaeological finds belonging to her uncle's private collection, a series of cermas dating back to Roman times.

Her first real production was a collection of buttons and small jewels, then she fell in love with lathe work and decided to focus on the production of functional ceramics and furnishing accessories in her small studio in Hyde Park.

 

She was in her studio when he began an apprenticeship with then novice Hans Coper, who later became her great friend and collaborator.

Her unique style and the variety of complex techniques she experimented influenced an entire generation of potters at the time and still today continues to be a point of reference for many ceramic artists.

He participated in various exhibitions all over the world including one, posthumous to his death: U-tsu-wa - Tokyo, where the productions of Lucie Rie, Jennifer Lee (ceramist), Ernst Gamperl (wood turner) were exhibited through an artistic intervention of great beauty and elegance.

In 1991 Lucie was appointed Dame Commander of the Order by the British Empire, thus recognizing her a preponderant role in the history of modern ceramic design.

Her aesthetic is so contemporary and absolutely immortal if we think that these ceramics were produced in the period following the Second World War.

Lucie's favorite material was stoneware, material and multifaceted, which allowed her to range through the use and experimentation of decorative and experimental techniques.

Sometimes even yielding to the voluptuousness of porcelain, she has obtained aesthetic results of great refinement.

The bizarre shapes of her vases and the bowls made with very high feet with a princely flavor have become the symbol of her production, as well as the demonstration of her mastery in turning and in the composition of more complex shapes.