

Elizabeth Fritsch

Architectural and essentially spiritual forms are explored in Elizabeth Fritsch's poetic, ceramic vessel structures.


The metaphysical function of certain kinds of buildings is to convey transcendence, spiritual exaltation, serenity, et cetera. This is most potent when there is an inter-relationship with music or the airy element, appearance and disappearance or extreme drama, as in monasteries, cathedrals, temples, tombs, and theatres. Even more than in such intentionally metaphysical buildings, certain mundane physically functional architecture carries a strong other-worldly poetic charge - all the stronger perhaps for being an unintentional by-product of the physical function, as in, for example, lighthouses, windmills, telescopes, bridges, boats, dams. It is the dangerous elemental relationships which make precision engineered buildings such as these breathtaking. A third strand of influence comes from the dramatic architecture created by the elements in nature: such as, to mention just a few examples from geology - mountaintops (Ziggurat towers, pyramids), cliffs, chasms, and waves.




Partial listing
Belle-Rive Museum, Zurich
British Council Collection, Great Britain
Crafts Council Collection, London
Decorative Arts Museum, Koberg
Kunst Industrie Museum, Copenhagen
Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris
Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Royal Museum, Scotland
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Zhigaraki Museum, Japan