Gudrum "Gutte" Agnete Tryde Eriksen (20 November 1918 – 8 July 2008) was a Danish
ceramist
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While ...
whose works were influenced by the years she spent in Japan studying Asian techniques. It is above all the specially produced glaze which is the distinguishing feature of her undecorated pottery. As a result of both her work and her teaching, she has exerted considerable influence on Danish potters.
Biography
Born in
Rødby
Rødby is a town located on the island of Lolland in south Denmark. It has a population of 1,957 (1 January 2024).School of Arts and Crafts where she specialized in
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
, graduating in 1939. While still studying, she exhibited at the Charlottenborg autumn exhibition in 1938, inspired by old artefacts she had seen in the
National Museum
A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...
.
The demand for ceramics during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
encouraged production in the early 1940s and thereafter. Eriksen first collaborated with Ã…se Feilberg and Christian Frederiksen in Hareskov before establishing her own workshop in
Kastrup
Kastrup () is a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark, on the east coast of Amager in Tårnby Municipality. It is the site of Copenhagen Airport. In Danish, the airport is often called ''Kastrup Lufthavn'' (Kastrup Airport) or ''Københavns Lufthavn, Kast ...
in 1942. That year she also successfully exhibited in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
in the ''Dansk Kunsthaandværk'' (Danish Craftmanship) show organized by
Mogens Koch
Mogens Koch (2 March 1898 – 16 September 1992) was a Danish architect and furniture designer and, from 1950 to 1968, a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
Early life and education
Mogens Koch was Koch in the Frederiksberg d ...
. When the exhibition came to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
's
Danish Design Museum
The Designmuseum Denmark () is a museum in Copenhagen for Danish and international design and crafts. It features works of famous Danish designers like Arne Jacobsen, Jacob Jensen and Kaare Klint, who was one of the two architects who remodele ...
, she sold a piece titled ''Søpindsvinet'' (The Sea Urchin) to the museum.
In 1948, Eriksen went to St Ives in England where she stayed with the potter
Bernard Leach
Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979) was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery".
Biography
Early years (Japan)
Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (nà ...
who had gained significance by publishing ''A Potter's Book'' in 1940. It was based on his familiarity with Chinese and Japanese pottery. She then went to France where she visited the potters Vassil Ivanoff in La Borne, a hamlet in
Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye
Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye (, literally ''Saint-Amand in Puisaye'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Nièvre Departments of France, department in central France. Its sights include the Château de Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, a representative work ...
.
After spending a couple of years working with
Felix Møhl
Felix may refer to:
* Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name
Places
* Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen
* Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province AlmerÃa, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...
(1906–85), Eriksen established her own workshop in an old school in
Hundested
Hundested is a town with a population of 8,590 (1 January 2025) and a former municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') in Region Hovedstaden in the northern part of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark.
The former municipality is su ...
where she became a pioneering Danish potter, soon becoming recognized internationally. From 1948, her distinctive works bore no decoration, relying on a glaze she learnt from the English ceramist, Michael Gill (born 1927) in 1950. She developed the technique herself, producing blue, brown and grey artefacts. The glaze consisted of a combination of
borax
The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.
,
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
, clay and ash.
In the early 1970s, Eriksen travelled to central Japan on several occasions, once again meeting Bernard Leach and studying Korean techniques which inspired her later work.
Eriksen's work has been widely exhibited, both in Denmark and abroad, with solo exhibitions in Germany, France, England, Sweden and the United States. A large retrospective exhibition was held at the
Vejen Art Museum
Vejen Art Museum () is an art gallery in the town Vejen in the south of Jutland, Denmark. It specializes in works from the end of the 19th century in styles including Symbolism and Art Nouveau.
Created in 1924 to house the works of sculptor an ...
in
Jutland
Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...
in the summer of 2001. She has received many awards, including the
Tagea Brandt Rejselegat
The Tagea Brandts ''Rejselegat'' (Travel Scholarship) is a Danish award to women who have made a significant contribution in science, literature or art. The grant, which is given without application, was created and endowed by Danish industrialist ...
(1969) and
Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal
The Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal () is an award granted annually by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for excellence in the fields of applied art and industrial design. The medal was established in 1979 in connection with the 75th anniversary of ...
(1985), the Prince Eugen Medal (2000) and the C. F. Hansen Medal (2004).
Gutte Eriksen died on 8 July 2008.
Personal life
In 1951, Eriksen married the painter Preben Hansen with whom she had two children, a daughter and a son.