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Gertrud and Otto Natzler

Gertrud and Otto Natzler

Gertrud and Otto Natzler Portrait

Both born in 1908 in Vienna, Otto Natzler pursued violin studies, attended a school for textile design, and worked as a textile designer. He met Gertrud Amon in 1933; she had attended commercial school and was working as a secretary while taking art classes. Gertrud almost immediately shifted Otto's interested to clay. Primarily self-taught, they studied at the ceramic workshop of Franz Iskra for less than a year, then opened their first workshop in 1935. Almost from the start, their collaboration involved a division of labor, with Gertrud’s remarkable throwing and Otto’s mastery of glazes. They quickly found success, winning a silver medal at the 1937 World Exposition in Paris. In 1938 they married and emigrated from Austria to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. Shortly after moving, they acquired an international reputation. More exhibitions and awards followed, including retrospectives at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts and Design), New York. By Gertrud’s death in 1971, they had created 25,000 works and Otto had developed 2,500 glazes. In the mid-1970s, Otto returned to work in clay, concentrating on slab construction. He went on to have numerous solo exhibitions and was named an American Craft Council Fellow in 1990. The Natzlers received the American Craft Council’s Gold Medal in 2001. Otto Natzler died in 2007.