Laura Andreson (1902

San Bernardino San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

– August 16, 1999

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) was an American

ceramic artist 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 ...

and educator at

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Cal ...

Life and career

Andreson graduated from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

''summa cum laude'' in 1932 with a bachelor's degree in education. She completed her MFA at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1937 through an intensive summer program. Andreson taught in the art department at University of California, Los Angeles from 1933 to 1970. She founded the ceramics program at the university in 1933 through the art education department. This program was one of the first of its kind in the United States and the first in the American West. Andreson was a major influence on the ceramics in the United States during the twentieth century. When Andreson began her career, there was little technical information available, leading to a lifelong commitment to experimentation with glazes and clays. Andreson is credited with developing new glaze technologies and firing techniques. Andreson found critical success early in her career. In 1937 she exhibited at the Rena Rosenthal Gallery in New York and in 1940 had an exhibition of her work at the

Honolulu Academy of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single collection ...

. In 1946, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

bought a piece of her work for their permanent collection; this was one of the first craft pieces made by a living artists purchased for the museum's collection. Andreson is credited with teaching more than 5,000 students while at UCLA. In her early career, Andreson worked primarily in low-fire

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

, which she slab built and slip cast. She learned to throw on the potter's wheel in 1944 from F. Carlton Ball at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

and Gertrude Natzler in Los Angeles. An accidental reduction firing in her Denver Kiln in 1948 lead to her beginning to work in

stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...

. In 1957, Andreson began working in

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

, which previously had been used primarily in commercial production in the United States. By the end of the decade, she had become the West Coast expert on porcelain among studio potters. Porcelain was her primary medium for the remainder of her career. Her production was deeply influenced by travels to Scandinavia and East Asia. Laura Andreson's creative process differed radically from other potters. Instead of starting with the creation of the vessel form, Andreson began with glazes and then decided what kind of form was best suited for the glaze. Her papers are held at the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

. Andreson's work can be found in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the

Everson Museum of Art The Everson Museum of Art ( ) in Downtown Syracuse, New York, is a major Central New York museum focusing on American art. History The museum was founded in 1897 by art historian George Fisk Comfort (who also helped found the Metropolitan Museu ...

Smithsonian Museum of American Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

, and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art. Her work, ''Bowl'', was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the

Renwick Gallery The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum located in Washington, D.C. that displays American craft and decorative arts from the 19th to 21st century. The gallery is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that ...

's 50th Anniversary Campaign.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andreson, Laura 1902 births 1999 deaths American women ceramists People from San Bernardino, California University of California, Los Angeles alumni UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty Columbia University School of the Arts alumni 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American ceramists 20th-century American women academics