Ivan Weiss. Clay, Brush and Glaze

The title, Clay, Brush and Glaze, may seem vague or imprecise. However, for the ceramic artist Ivan Weiss (b.1946), precision is the very key to mastering his distinguished craft. In 1962, at the age of 16, he comes to work at the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, where he is taught in the factory’s technical disciplines of porcelain decoration. His talent for drawing earns him a place in the overglaze department, where he learns to decorate the traditional porcelain services with carefully executed brushstrokes. A task that requires patience, nerve and precision, with the goal of making the exacting work appear as easy as child’s play.

Weiss’s talent is obvious, and as a fully trained overglaze painter, he becomes an employee of the factory. After initial artistic training under the master painter Nils Thorsson and a residency with a potter in Japan, he begins to work for the factory as an independent artist. From this time on, Ivan Weiss develops designs for serial production and, not least, creates his many one-off pieces in both stoneware and porcelain. Over the years, his works have become increasingly expressive, imbued with a special sense of energy and power in celebration of the beauty of life and nature’s changes. Ivan Weiss works at the factory until the sale of Royal Copenhagen and the last firing in the coal-fired kiln in 2002. Thus, over a 40-year period characterised by profound development and transformation, he helps to build a bridge between the factory’s refined tradition and a modern, artistic

expression with inspiration from both Asian and European ceramics. For these accomplishments, Ivan Weiss is regarded as one of the last of the great stoneware masters at the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory. Clay, Brush and Glaze is the first comprehensive presentation of Ivan Weiss’s ceramic works, and at CLAY, we are looking forward to showcasing the versatility of his expression through a rich selection of one-offs on every scale. A life’s work with an international outlook and a powerful testimony to the mutually inspiring interplay of art, craft and design as it unfolded in the context of the factory.

The exhibition is supported by

the Augustinus Foundation, the C. L. Davids Foundation and Collection, the Danish Tennis Foundation, the Lemvigh-Müller Foundation, the New Carlsberg Foundation and the Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik Foundation