Bowl

1939–40

Bowl, 1939–40. Gertrud Natzler (American, born Vienna, Austria, 1908–1971), Otto Natzler (American, born Vienna, Austria, 1908–2007). Earthenware with chartreuse glaze; 4.5 x 14.3 x 14.8 cm (1 3/4 x 5 5/8 x 5 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Catherine Glynn Benkaim 2020.88 Getrud and Otto Natzler were two of the most important American artisan designers working in ceramics in the 20th century. They were both born in Vienna, Austria, where they began their careers absorbing the early modernist aesthetic of that city in the 1920s. The Natzlers adapted the Viennese Secessionist emphasis on the use of brightly contrasting colors in their early work such as this bowl with its chartreuse glaze. This bowl was created shortly after Gertrud and Otto Natzler emigrated from Austria to the United States in 1938 to escape the onslaught of Nazi terror.