Lucie Rie

Lucie Rie (1902-1995) was a pioneer of the British modernist ceramic movement. She was born in Vienna to an affluent Jewish family and was educated at the leading arts and crafts school in the country, Kunstgewerbeschule Vienna. In Austria, she became well-known for her hand-thrown ceramic, mixing many popular aesthetics of the day, and received an award at the 1937 Paris exposition. However, Rie decided to flee Austria the following year to escape the growing threat of Nazism. She arrived, completely unknown, in London with only a suitcase in which she had used her clothes to wrap and protect her pots. Although she could not obtain a license for pot making due to being declared an ‘enemy alien’, Rie quickly saw an opportunity to produce ceramic buttons whilst factories were producing exclusively for the war effort. After having won contracts with large Italian fashion houses, Rie employed many other European Jews who came to England to work in her studio. She developed a simple production technique for her buttons that allowed her to employ refugees who had no previous experience in ceramics. After the war, she was able to obtain a license to make pots and began to create aesthetics and forms never previously seen in Britain. She became a mentor to many young refugees, such as Hans Coper who became an influential potter in his own right. Her work has also influenced creatives in many different disciplines, such as Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake who incorporated her work into many of his designs. Over the course of her career, spanning over five decades, she was honoured with an CBE, an OBE, and finally an DCE in 1991. ​