My last job in Minneapolis was located not far from the wonderful Northern Clay Center on Franklin Avenue. I liked to go over at lunch, and when the late Anne Kraus was showing her ceramics, I must have visited five times just to look at her domestic but fanciful pieces and read their cryptic messages. Kraus decorated exotic tea cups. teapots, tiles, and more with intricate, mysterious scenes, and on them she wrote puzzling remarks. You would think about them long after leaving.
This one, “I Can’t Sleep Tile 1998” has this written near the top: “I ask this intruder if he can be quiet because I want to sleep so that I can dream. But he tells me that we are right now asleep and deep into a dream.” (The photo in the Garth Clark Gallery survey book was taken by Noel Allum.) You can see more of Kraus’s work online. Here, for example.
By the way, Warren MacKenzie, a giant among potters, was one of the original founders of the Northern Clay Center in 1990. He gets around, and I have observed that he has an exhibit at the Lacoste Gallery in Concord (MA) almost every year. He is showing there now.
On October 28, 2011, the NY Times noted a sale of some Anne Kraus ceramics, which brought numerous people who were searching on her name to my post.
These are marvelous and definitely what my friends would call “interstitial.”
dear suzannes mum,
im a potter from melbourne, australia and im starting my PhD, this year, 2012. i know it has been a while since you wrote this, so i may have missed you.but i thought i’d try anyway!
i need to find a gallery that has a collection of Anne Kraus’s work, or even one piece of her work for me to include in my study but to be honest, i cant find her work or find out where it is. do you know??hopefully you know more than me about this anyway!!!! if you could help, i would love to hear from you,
thankkyou,
marianne huhn
I suggest you contact Garth Clark Gallery, her dealer. Note that in the article I linked to, they were selling several pieces: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/arts/design/2-painters-named-church-faberge-eggs.html?_r=1. Here is info on the gallery: http://www.ceramics-directory.com/CERAMIC-ARTS/Galleries/5-68-0-401-0-0-Garth-Clark-Gallery.html. Also click on the link in my post to LACMA.org, a museum in Los Angeles that can help you. I am sorry that my post originally spelled Garth wrong and may have led you astray.
Hi I am Anne Kraus’ brother and I have a small collection of her works. I can send you some photos if you like. Jim
Marianne Huhn, the potter in Australia, asked about your sister’s work quite a while back, but I’m letting her know of your kind offer by filling out the form on her site: http://www.mariannehuhn.com.
Jim, I was a friend of Anne’s when she was at Alfred University. (See my note on this column in March 2013.) I would love to see photos of other work that she did. — Michael Lakin (Ithaca, NY)
I will send you his e-mail. Do let me know if you get connected.
I just wanted to share that I have been blessed to know Anne’s mother and extended family and to have seen her work in person. What an amazingly creative mind and heart she had. It was a great loss to the world when she died so young.
Cynthia, I really appreciate your sharing that. This blog being at WordPress, I can see many of the terms people search on, and you’d be surprised how often her name comes up. Sometimes I regret not buying one of those cups, but they were so fragile and magical. I didn’t trust myself with them.
Your teacup would be worth SO much right now! I was afraid to touch anything she created. Her mom hadn’t touched anything in her studio after she passed. It was sad. She was such a talent. I need to get back in touch with her again! You won’t be able to buy any of her pieces anymore. They are only available in museums now. Cindy
Thanks so much for commenting here, Cindy.
I was a friend of Anne’s when she was at Alfred Univ. I would occasionally visit her at her place off Main St. Such a lovely, quiet soul. I have at least a half dozen of her pieces, but they are from her pre-painterly time–they are mostly sparsely landscaped square bowls decorated with what I think of as ‘Tuscany trees’, all with the ‘shining leaf’ logo on the base. I felt immensely sad when I learned that she had died.
Thank you for this. I had such a strong reaction to the teacups, I went back time and again. I gather she was a quiet person, but what she put of herself out there seems to have connected with all sorts of people.