Woodbury Antiques & Fine Art Hand painted West German Pottery section:

West German ceramic vases made in the 1950's, 60's and 70's are becoming more collectable as people realize their significance in an historical sense. It was a break away from the old style into the new and experimental era of minimalism and abstraction. These vases were made to enhance and compliment the new style of contemporary living. They are practical decorative examples of Modernism. By the mid seventies many of the chemicals and compounds used in the brilliant glazes were disallowed by the West German EPA, because of fumes emitted during the kiln process, but alternative compounds lacked the pigment intensity and the chemical strength which made the earlier ones so rich and colorful.

After the Second World War the West German ceramic artists and designers were quick to seize upon their newfound freedom; while they were unhappy about the bombed out state of their industry, they were free to experiment with form in the 1950's. They went back to the beginning starting with the basic egg shape; they gained their inspiration from Nature using coral, fish and organic vegetative form in new and innovative ways. They also found inspiration from earlier modern artists like Constantine Brancusi and his sculpture, the beginning of the world, 1920, a marble egg form, smooth surface and pure contemplative form. In the United States and France some of the pre World War Two artists like Alexander Calder (1898-1976) and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) produced art works with color and primitive mass that directly anticipate the Brutalist architectural movement seen in New York City in buildings as the Pan-Am building and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The 1950's were still rather conservative, but that was about to change as concepts like freedom and modernism blossomed into the accepted culture of Western Europe, superseding the oppressive fascism that forcibly occupied an earlier generation a mere ten years earlier. The 1960’s were an exciting time, the Beatles brought a new music and freedom to the masses express individuality, rebelling against the conscript crew cut hair style of the older generation people grew our hair long and wear whatever their individual taste desired. It was the time of the mini skirt, experimentation with drugs and eastern religions, alternative lifestyles, hippies and, flower power. To accommodate this new age houses would become larger and more practical, The affluent middle class could afford large entertaining areas with the kitchen now a part of open plan living. Thus the transformation of an earlier formal dining room to today's so-called great room.

Building is the art we live in and Modernisms distinctive minimal abstract style of bold bright color and geometric patterns was an attempt to bring art into the home. Interior design and color matching that would have a beneficial effect on our psyche by its simplicity of line color and form. The best example of the modernist style can be seen in the original Star Trek series, where primary colors are used in the uniforms of the space crew and the backdrops are minimal gray with an absence of decoration. The most commonly used color that expressed the vitality of modernism was orange; the symbolic pigment of a new dawn. There was an incredible diversity of color glazes made by the different West German companies that were exported around the globe.