Elisabeth Eyl Presents “Candies” of Art

from eYs Magazine Winter 2022 Edition 15

THE ART OF BEING ‘NOT’ BUSY

Elisabeth Eyl Presents “Candies” of Art

by Maya Apostoloska

I am very excited and honoured to introduce to you Elisabeth Eyl, an art historian and art collector, researcher, adviser, writer, exhibitions organizer, mother of Noa and grandmother of Saul. Elisabeth Eyl was born in Amsterdam and currently lives and works in Heusden, North Brabant in The Netherlands. She has studied History of art at The University of Amsterdam and finished her studies in 1988. She has worked in libraries and organizations of education. She is very passionate about art and over the last fifteen years, she collects very unique ceramic the Bauhaus related art pieces.

**Elisabeth Eyl with Villeroy & Boch sugar bowl and Carstens teapot ©photo Bob Bronshoff**

Elisabeth Eyl, would you like to please to introduce yourself?

I love art in every shape and form. As I am an art historian, the visual arts is my area of study and research. But I also love music and other performing arts. Music goes fastest to your heart. My son is a violinist, how beautiful is that!

I am judgement-free: everything I immerse myself in becomes interesting to me. During my studies, I always wanted to become something else, in the chronological order of the examination material. While learning about archaeology, I wanted to become an archaeologist. When the Middle Ages came on the programme, I wanted to become a medievalist. And so on.

Modern art grabbed me. Here was something unprecedented.

Before, art styles followed each other naturally, as it were, and adapted to history. Modern art, from the second half of the 19th century, broke with this tradition. The public and art no longer related in a natural way.

Another aspect that interests me is appliedd art. And then I come to the matter of my collecting area. Art movements of the early 20th century incorporated the living environment. The Bauhaus artists, for example, designed utilitarian objects. There begins what we now call Design.

When did you realise that you love art? Did something particularly happen in your childhood?

I already loved art as a child. I remember visiting antiquarian bookshops with my father at the weekend. He was always looking for literature and special editions. I went to the art corner. I still have the little art books I picked out, about Picasso, Manet, Degas. My father would buy them for me.

How did you fall in love with clay, and when did you start to collect art pieces?

During a trip to the Bauhaus building in Dessau, designed by the founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, I noticed the ceramics of the Bauhaus. They are not very well known.

We all know the architecture, the furniture, chairs, and lamps of the typical Bauhaus design, but there is also Bauhaus ceramics.

An interesting aspect of Bauhaus-related ceramics is that they are decorated. Therefore, for a long time, it was not recognised as belonging to the Bauhaus. The characteristics of the Bauhaus, products are specifically that they are clean, without “unnecessary” decoration, and the forms are reduced to the essence. Ceramics turned out to be something of a niche, and that intrigued me. That is how I started collecting. I learn a lot by collecting.

What is the most important to know about the Bauhaus movement?

It is important to realise that Bauhaus was an educational institute. It was a school of crafts. There were workshops for wood, metal, textiles, and other materials as well as ceramic. Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919. His manifesto states that the products of the Bauhaus should be of quality and available to everyone. That was one of the most innovative aspects of the Bauhaus, that everyone, rich and poor, was given access to modern design.

The school was opened to women, which was very revolutionary at the time.

Women from all over Europe came to the Bauhaus. They became leading designers in the fields of metal, textile, and ceramics.

**Cake platters from unknown factories, 1920-1930. Airbrush decorated with motifs of the type Kandinsky uses in his art. ©photos Elisabeth Eyl**

Tea set by Zeller Manufaktur, Zell am Hamersbach, 1920-1930. Typical Bauhaus design. The teapot with flat top, decentralised lid and semi-circular ear is based on the prototype that Marianne Brandt designed in the Bauhaus metal workshop. Decorated with Airbrush. ©photo Bob Bronshoff

Why is Bauhaus revolutionary for architecture and fine art, especially for ceramics?

As far as the design itself is concerned, the revolution lies in the fact that the aim was to develop totally new stylistic forms, which do not refer to anything that was already there. The pupils had to rediscover the materials, as it were, like a child, and from there discover how the materials can be applied. This is, for instance, how the idea of a tubular steel chair came about: unprecedented and totally new. The ceramic objects became earthy, the clay as a material was not ignored but elevated and the glazes allowed the clay to show through. The firing process was likewise allowed to leave traces on the final product.

Something exciting happened to the Bauhaus related ceramics. To understand this, it is important to know that all Bauhaus students had to start their education with a propaedeutic year. The teachers included Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, and all artist painters. They taught painting and colour theory. They used new techniques, such as airbrush, in their artworks.

Tea set by Margarete Heymann-Löbenstein. She was Bauhaus student, established her own ceramics factory the Haël-Werkstätten Geometric design, minimal decoration applied by airbrush, 1923-1933 ©photos Elisabeth Eyl

This is precisely what we find on the ceramics of that time. Dozens of ceramics factories at the time set up workplaces for airbrush decoration. The paint was sprayed on the objects along templates. The elements of form are exactly like those in paintings by Kandinsky and Klee.

Another decoration principle was the so-called dripping decor, a technique in which the glaze is allowed to drip. Through the use of airbrush and drip decorations, each object is unique.

The cheerful tableware brought about a true revolution at the kitchen tables of the interbellum.

Sadly, during the Nazi regime, all modern art was labelled Entartet, degenerate. This also applied to tableware.

I discovered the shocking fact that the Nazi art laws penetrated into living rooms. The Bauhaus-related tableware had to be destroyed and expelled. Sometimes they went into hiding, in attics and cellars.

So, it could happen that these forgotten crockery items, if they were not thrown away after the war, today end up on flea markets.

Would you like to please to describe to us the Etalagemuseum project?

During the first lockdown, related to the Corona pandemic, everything was closed, theatres, concert halls and museums. It gave a gloomy feeling.

That’s when I got the idea to make a window museum in an empty corner shop. So, people could safely look at art from the outside. The owner of the empty shop supported this idea and gave me the key. I filled the shop with ceramics from my collection and placed signs with information.

This was a great success! More shops wanted to participate. Thus, a Bauhaus Ceramics Route came into being in the small town of Heusden. The municipality gave me a little money to make a leaflet in which I described the route. Now, everybody in Heusden and its surroundings knows about the Bauhaus ceramics! The owner of the bridal shop even designed a dress based on a cacao jug in my collection.

Are there any other projects you have realised in the past?

In 2019, the internationally celebrated Bauhaus year (one hundred years after the founding of the Bauhaus), I have organised a number of exhibitions with my ceramics. I also give lectures and publish on the subject.

Why is Bauhaus pottery like “candy” to you?

It makes me happy; I like the free shapes and colours. I love the art of the time. It breathes the spirit of freedom and innovation. Every time I discover an object, usually lonely displayed among a lot of trash on a flea market, I have the feeling that I must rescue it. In my collection, it will come out beautifully.

I have found very interesting the online posts of you including cats. What does the (black) cat mean to you?

The black cat has also become a “collector’s item” for me.

It so happens that I always have had and still have a black cat as a pet. I enjoyed looking for images on which black cats are depicted. Well, that turned out to be an extensive project! The black cat takes me through art history. There is even a Bauhaus