Natzler, Gertrud and Otto (American, 1908-1971, 1908-2007)
Crocker Art Museum, Hubert A. Arnold Collection Although Gertrud
and Otto Natzler did not receive formal training in ceramic
making, they both had an interest in clay and ultimately formed
an extraordinary partnership. Both artists were born in Vienna,
but later immigrated to the United States. Otto Natzler began
his art career in textile design and then worked as a designer
in a necktie factory. He met Gertrud Amon in 1933. The two
artists won a silver medal for ceramics at the 1938 Exposition
Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in
Paris. After German troops invaded Austria that year, they
married and left Vienna, taking Gertrud’s potting wheel and
their electric kiln to California. They settled in Los Angeles,
offering ceramics instruction until they could establish a
market for their work. In California, the Natzlers became
seriously committed to their art. Gertrud ably threw elegant,
thin-walled forms that retain a feeling of