Bowl (Austria)

Austrian designer Michael Powolny, who trained as a ceramicist, was perhaps best known for his sculptures of putti and animals. However, for utilitarian wares—in ceramics as well as in glass—he also employed formal, abstract designs. In 1913, Powolny designed seven pieces of glass, manufactured by The Bohemian factory Lötz Witwe, marking an important collaboration between modern Viennese designers and Bohemian glassmakers that would also include Wiener Werkstätte cofounder Josef Hoffmann. The linear, two-dimensional decoration of these pieces, as seen on this bowl, reflects the avant-garde Viennese style of functional, unornamented design. These design ideals were promoted by the Wiener Werkstätte, with whom he began collaborating for ceramics production in 1907. The Lötz pieces were shown in the 1914 exhibition in Cologne held by the Deutscher Werkbund, an association of influential craftsmen. The simple motif proved successful at the exhibition and became the Lötz factory’s most-used design, though with varying colors and on a range of vessel forms, until the 1920s.

Bowl (Austria); Designed by Michael Powolny (Austrian, 1871 - 1954); Manufactured by Joannes Loetz Witwe (Hungary); mold blown, internally decorated white and overlaid opaline and applied black glass; H x diam.: 14.1 x 21.2 cm (5 9/16 x 8 3/8 in.); Gift of Daniel Morris and Denis Gallion; 1993-134-8