Press Release
Clay mural by renowned Master Potter rediscovered
Ceramic wall piece by Bauhaus-trained Frans Wildenhain highlights ceramist’s career
A previously undocumented clay mural by renowned Bauhaus-trained ceramist Frans
Wildenhain (1905-1980) has been rediscovered hiding in plain sight some 200 miles from where
he lived and worked.
A ceramics professor from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY, Wildenhain
created one of his last clay murals in 1978 at Lock Haven University (LHU) in Lock Haven, PA. The
mural—eight feet square and depicting Lock Haven’s topography—anonymously greets visitors
to the university’s Sloan Fine Arts Center.
Wildenhain revived an earlier art medium from the 1930s when artists produced public wall
murals through the New Deal’s Federal Art Project (FAP). Those works often were situated in
civically-centered places such as post offices.
Interest in art murals lost momentum around World War II, and was revived by artists such as
Wildenhain during the 1950s through the 1970s. Wildenhain received a Guggenheim
Foundation Fellowship in 1958 to study ceramic walls and architecture.
Wildenhain created several ceramic murals or “friezes” or “mosaics” throughout his career,
including works at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD, Strasenburgh Laboratories
in Henrietta, NY, Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ, and one mural at an auditorium on RIT’s
campus. He also completed at least two ceramic murals that are now in private possession.
Thanks to a collaborative effort between LHU and RIT, the important ceramic work now joins
the documented list of Wildenhain’s murals. The hunt for the clay piece was launched by Dr.
Bruce Austin, who is the organizer of an exhibition of mid-century ceramics by Wildenhain.
“I read a couple of cryptic notes about a Lock Haven mural in Frans’s mid-70s sketchbooks,”
Austin says. “But they didn’t reveal much beyond noting the city.” Austin’s interview with one of
Wildenhain’s colleagues yielded a bit more clarity, suggesting LHU as the location of the piece.
The pursuit of the LHU mural’s history coincides with a revitalization of interest and inquiry into
Wildenhain’s work. More than 150 of Wildenhain’s ceramics are on view at RIT from Aug. 20 –
Oct. 2, 2012, in the exhibition, Frans Wildenhain 1950-75: Creative and Commercial American
Ceramics at Mid-century. This on-campus exhibition will be held simultaneously in two galleries,
the Dyer Arts Center and the Bevier Gallery. The event is free and open to the public. An
exhibition catalogue is available and provides details about several ceramic murals by Wildenhain.
Contact: Bruce Austin
phone: 585-475-2879
email: [email protected]
www.rit.edu/wild
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Rochester Institute of Technology
College of Liberal Arts
92 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623