Eva Zeisel: Pottery between Art Craft and Industrial Design

The work of Eva Zeisel on ceramics is an extraordinary repertory of harmonious and natural forms expressed in her "useful things" philosophy. She has had a very long life and during the ’60-’90 she designed a serious of very important ceramics sets, in which she was able to elaborate an original poetic between art and industry, expressing many different themes many different ceramics technique and decorative finishing. This paper aims at describe the evolution of her aesthetic principles: from the geometric period, based on a strictly geometrical matrix, to the organic period, based on a natural freeform production: during the organic period she had loved to say: “the flowing, three-dimensional lines are adapted from nature, suggested by the harmonious curves of petals and fruits.” When in 1983 she returned in Hungarian, after the political change in the Country, she was commissioned by the American Government to execute an Exposition about Architecture an pottery sets inspired by her Origin, mixing tradition with the innovation achieved during her American period. Her extraordinary life will be reflected by her work as a ceramics designer.