Esoteric Survey

Edith Heath: A Life in Clay  at the Oakland Museum of California Art "This is not a traditional ceramics or craft exhibition - it combines historic objects, photographs, documentary video and personal memorabilia to showcase Heath's legacy and story." Edith Kiertzner grew up on a farm in Iowa. On the left is the French porcelain china her Danish immigrant parents rarely used. In 1931 Edith attended Chicago Normal School (Chicago Teachers College) and graduated in 1934. She then went to the Art Institute of Chicago and studied with László Moholy-Nagy at his Chicago School of Design. She met Brian Heath in 1938 at a summer camp in Batavia, Illinois where they were both working. They soom married and moved to Chicago. In 1941 they moved to San Francisco.  Edith taught art at Presidio Hill School and audited classes at California School of Fine Arts. S he then enrolled in ceramics and chemistry courses at the San Francisco Art Institute and UC Berkeley. She was working dili...

This weekend I picked up a book on window decorating. There were several photos of windows by Gump's of San Francisco, including this one featuring chairs by  Van Keppel Green . After 157 years in business, Gump's is shutting the doors on their San Francisco storefront. Founded in 1861 by the Gump's family, they were established to cater to the new millionaire class resulting from the gold rush. The focus was on luxury and imported items until World War II made it difficult to import from international vendors. At that point, Gump's began looking to domestic artists and craftspeople, such as Edith Heath... Gump's buyer, Bill Brewer, saw Edith's work on display at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. The contents of the show were consigned to Gump's after the show ended and sold well. Brewer then offered her a space they had been using on Clay St. (no joke) that they had been using to host ceramic workshops. Gump's subsidised the r...