Post War & Contemporary Ceramics 
2 October 2024
Post War & Contemporary Ceramics 
140

Maija Grotell 1899–1973

Exceptional and Tall vase

c. 1950
glazed stoneware 22 h × 10 dia in (56 × 25 cm)
estimate: $20,000–30,000
result: $50,400
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Incised signature to underside ‘MG’ with original Detroit Institute of Arts paper label. Sold with a digital copy of correspondence from Howard Kottler.
provenance: Detroit Institute of Arts | Collection of Howard Kottler | Acquired from the previous c. 1988, Collection of Arthur J. Williams
literature: American Ceramics: 1876 to the Present, Clark, pg. 88 illustrates similar example

This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.

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I always have something I am aiming at, and I keep on. I don't sketch on paper, I sketch in clay. So, if it is not what I want, I make another one. My reason is not for repeating but for improving. I like to learn from each piece I make. I keep on doing it because it is difficult.

Maija Grotell

A Constant Craving for Art

The Collection of Arthur J. Williams

Arthur J. Williams

We are honored to present works from the Collection of Arthur J. Williams (1936–2021), a man who lived a life dedicated to, and surrounded by, the arts.

Williams began his career in the mailroom at CBS before working in production and editing TV advertisements. He founded Editing Concepts Inc. in 1970, of which he became Chairman of the Board, and was instrumental in expanding the company to six divisions all related to the film and video industry. He was a founding member of the Association of Independent Creative Editors and served as its president for a time. Williams’s success in the media world afforded him the freedom to follow his passion for the arts, and he became a respected member of the International Academy of Ceramics (Geneva, Switzerland) and the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts (Newcastle, Maine). Additionally, he was on the board of the Craft Alliance of the 52nd St. YWCA, where he curated a number of exhibits for the Elsa Mott Gallery, and he conceptualized the Museum of Ceramic Art - New York, an important virtual platform which celebrates the art of ceramics.  

“I am a clay addict. My fixes come in big and small, bright and demure and always quench my need temporarily. Or should I call it a sweet tooth that has a constant craving?...As a collector of clay objects, I am at once picky and open to what shares my home. An artwork has to show creativity, sparks of ingenuity and passion.”

A passionate collector and voracious reader, Williams remarked in a 2000 interview: “Educating oneself is the most exciting thing if not the most important aspect of collecting. Without knowledge, you can’t grow.” His genuine curiosity about art led him to acquire a diverse range of works from Chinese Export Ware and Pennsylvania Red Ware to sculptures by Chakaia Booker and contemporary ceramics from artists around the world. He found great joy in seeking out new pieces and in a note from his personal archive, we are given a wonderful glimpse into his thought process as a collector: “I am a clay addict. My fixes come in big and small, bright and demure and always quench my need temporarily. Or should I call it a sweet tooth that has a constant craving?...As a collector of clay objects, I am at once picky and open to what shares my home. An artwork has to show creativity, sparks of ingenuity and passion.” Williams had a prescient eye for art, especially of the clay variety, and assembled what became one of the most important, and comprehensive, contemporary ceramics collections of the present day.

Maija Grotell 1899–1973

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Finnish-American ceramic artist and teacher Maija Grotell was born in Helsinki in 1899. She trained at the University of Art & Design Helsinki and worked as a textile designer for the Finnish National Museum while studying. With employment scarce in Finland in the 1920s, Grotell moved to New York City in 1927.

After only three days, Grotell found work and spent the following summer at Alfred University in Western New York under the supervision of Charles Fergus Binns. While Binns taught in a formal, constructive manner, Grotell preferred to learn directly on the potter's wheel. During the interwar period, wheel-thrown ceramics were not yet common in the United States. American pottery making favored slip casting, coiling, and slab building. Yet Grotell's skill at the potter's wheel was undeniable and she distinguished herself as an instructor in New York City in the 1930s.

In 1938, Grotell was hired as head of the ceramics program at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, filling a position previously occupied by Waylande Gregory. Grotell was initially hesitant to accept the job because she feared her independence might be compromised and credit for her work given to male colleagues. However, over the next three decades, through her experiments with high-fire glazes and stoneware clay forms, Grotell proved herself a dedicated, innovative ceramicist and a passionate educator. She would often teach all day and then work in the pottery studio all night. Eventually, this tireless work ethic would take its toll, leading to chronic muscle tightness in the 1960s. Grotell ultimately passed away in 1973 in Pontiac, Michigan.

Grotell's legacy as an important ceramic artist is evident in the many fine geometric and figural works that remain. Examples are held in various private collections and by notable institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cranbrook Art Museum, and elsewhere. Furthermore, Grotell is often referred to as "the mother of American ceramics" since she made Cranbrook's ceramics department a leader in the field and trained prominent artists like Richard De Vore, Marie Woo, Jan Sultz, John Parker Glick, Howard Kottler, and Toshiko Takaezu.

Auction Results Maija Grotell

Maija Grotell

Tall vessel

estimate: $6,000–9,000

result: $20,160

Maija Grotell

Fine and Large vase

estimate: $8,000–12,000

result: $18,900

Maija Grotell

vase

estimate: $15,000–20,000

result: $16,800

Maija Grotell

Large bowl

estimate: $3,000–4,000

result: $10,080

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