Valerie "Vally" Wieselthier (May 25, 1895 – September 1, 1945) was an Austrian-American ceramic artist.

Biography

Valerie Wieselthier was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. Her father, Wilhelm Wieselthier, was a lawyer. She attended the in Vienna from 1912 to 1914 and studied at the

Vienna School of Applied Arts Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

with Rosalinda Rothhansl, Kolo Moser,

Josef Hoffmann Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrians, Austrian-Sudeten Germans, Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architect ...

, and

Michael Powolny Michael Powolny (18 September 1871 – 4 January 1954) was an Austrian sculptor, medallist, ceramist, designer, and teacher. Powolny was born in Judenburg. He was trained at Tonindustrie in Znaim, and from 1894 to 1901 in the Wiener Kunstgewerbes ...

from 1914 to 1920. In addition, she worked as an auxiliary nurse during the First World War. From 1917 to 1922, she worked for the

Wiener Werkstätte The Wiener Werkstätte ("Vienna Workshop"), established in 1903 by the graphic designer and painter Koloman Moser, the architect Josef Hoffmann and the patron Fritz Waerndorfer, was a productive association in Vienna, Austria that brought to ...

. From 1922 to 1927, she ran her own ceramic workshop in cooperation with the Augarten porcelain factory, which was newly founded in 1923, but also with other companies such as Friedrich Goldscheider, and J. & L. Lobmeyr. Her expressive and humorous porcelain figures attracted attention at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels modern in Paris in 1925 and are considered typical examples of the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style. From 1928, the artist increasingly moved her center of life to the United States. She went to the in New York City in October 1928. In 1933, she moved to Chicago with Paul Lester Wiener and worked as a designer for the Contempora Group and the Sebring Pottery Company. Her use of lead glazes and the potential effect of

lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...

on her mental and physical health have not been evaluated. She died on September 1, 1945, of stomach cancer in a New York hospital. Her work is held by many museums, including the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

and

Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna The MAK – Museum of Applied Arts (German: ''Museum für angewandte Kunst'') is an arts and crafts museum located at Stubenring 5 in Vienna's 1st district Innere Stadt. Besides its traditional orientation towards arts and crafts and design, the ...

Literature

* Marianne Hörmann: ''Vally Wieselthier. 1895–1945. Wien – Paris – New York. Keramik – Skulptur – Design der zwanziger und dreißiger Jahre.'' Böhlau, Wien 1999 (Zugleich:

Universität Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian Bundesland of Tirol, and the th ...

, Dissertation, 1999) * Hertha Kratzer: ''Die großen Österreicherinnen. 90 außergewöhnliche Frauen im Porträt.'' Ueberreuter, Wien 2001 * Robert E. Dechant, Filipp Goldscheider: ''Goldscheider. Firmengeschichte und Werkverzeichnis. Historismus, Jugendstil, Art Déco, 1950er Jahre-'' Arnold, Stuttgart 2007, . * Alastair Duncan: ''Encyclopedia of Art Deco.'' William Collins, Sydney 1988, , S. 183.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wieselthier, Vally Austrian ceramists Austrian women ceramists Wiener Werkstätte 1895 births 1945 deaths 20th-century Austrian women artists World War I nurses Deaths from stomach cancer in New York (state) Jewish Austrian artists Jewish women artists Austrian emigrants to the United States