Studio: international art (87.1924)

VIENNA

VIENNA.—Of late quite a number of
women artists have taken up the pot-
ter's art as a profession. Among these, and
quite in the front rank, is Susi Singer,
some examples of whose work are here
reproduced. Hers has not been the direct
path, for she was a painter before she be-
came a potter by way of the Vienna Arts
and Crafts Schools and the Wiener
Werkstatte. In the former she entered the
classes under the eminent pedagogue,
artist and architect, Professor Josef Hoff-
mann. He, recognising her great talents,
advised her to enter for practical training
the other institution, where she tried
mind and hand at the different applied
arts made in these now world-famous
workshops, finding eventually that her
chief strength lies in ceramic art. In this
she shows great personality, imbuing her
work with a gracious expression and a
subtle refinement, lending it a certain
unconscious artistry peculiar to all that is
best in feminine art. In this she has laid
down the real qualities in her art, while at
the same time mastering the difficult
technique of her chosen profession. That
she was first a painter is shown in her

“ PURSUED INNOCENCE.” COLOURED
GLAZED POTTERY STATUETTE BY
MISS SUSI SINGER

(Wiener Werkstatte, Vienna)

RESTING GIRL.” COLOURED
GLAZED POTTERY STATUETTE
BY MISS SUSI SINGER

(Wiener Werkstatte, Vienna)

manner of obtaining colour effects in her
glazing, that she is gifted with the pictorial
sense, as in the decorative effect, is shown
in the figures into which she breathes life
and form. a a a a 0
She possesses a remarkable skill and
an uncommon felicity in her renderings,
a delightful feeling for colouring, a delicate
feminine taste, refinement of fancy and an
exquisiteness of touch. Chiefly her works
are single pieces made from the beginning
to the final touch, throughout all the pro-
cesses necessary to the perfect object, by
herself alone. Even when several pieces
are made after her models she watches
carefully the different procedures; always,
however, the glazing is laid on by her own
hands ; the burning in the kilns is under
her special charge, no detail escapes her
quick mind and careful hand. In these
qualities of artist and craftswoman lie
the real test of her power, a a a
That she has endowed her art with a sub-
jectivity essentially personal and feminine
has already gained for her a place remark-
ably promising among contemporary cera-
mic workers. Her name is already known
beyond the frontiers of her own country.
She has been judged rightly in her art as
a painter of plastic pictures, her colourings
flowing into one another as if on canvas.

A. S. Levetus.

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