| Otto and Gertrud Natzler | ||
| Birth Date: Gertrud (1908)
Otto (1908) |
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| Death Date: Gertrud (1971)
Otto (2007) Artist Gallery |
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| Gertrud and Otto Natzler were both born in 1908 in Vienna. They met in 1933 and began collaboration in ceramics. Gertrude threw all the forms and Otto devised the glazes, both becoming masters of their specialty. They were primarily self-taught in ceramics and developed a classical style. In 1937, they achieved their first major success winning the silver medal at the Paris International Exposition.
The political tensions that erupted into World War II drove many European artists into exile. Painters for whatever reason ended up on the East Coast, but artists involved in clay dispersed throughout the United States. The Natzlers immigrated to the United States in 1938 and settled in Los Angeles. Gertrude’s work on the wheel attracted other American potters. The only wheel available at this time was a stand up one connected to a treadle, an awkward balancing act at best. Gertrude’s wheel allowed her to sit down and rotate the wheel with her foot. Otto, after testing local clay and glaze materials, found a fine-quality earthenware indigenous to California, thus clay no longer had to be imported from other states.
Throughout their lives, they were always striving for greater simplicity and purity of line through their shapes and glazing.
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