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November 13, 2006 Hungarian American Artist Eva Zeisel Celebrates 100th Birthday Ambassador Simonyi attended the 100th birthday party of Hungarian born designer, Eva Zeisel in the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York.
Pratt Institute President Thomas F. Schutte hosted a private birthday party for Eva Zeisel at Pratt Manhattan Gallery on her birthday for her close friends and family. The “Eva Zeisel at 100: A Lifetime of Masterwork in Design” at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery presents nearly 100 original ceramic works by the renowned Hungarian-born designer and celebrates her contributions to Pratt Institute, where she taught for 15 years. The exhibition chronicles her career leading up to her 100th birthday on November 13, 2006. The Ambassador read out the greeting letter of Katalin Szili, the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament on this special occasion. Eva Zeisel was honored with the Commander’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 2004.
Eva Zeisel is one of the most important and best-known designers in the United States. Born Eva Amalia Stricker in Budapest, the artist grew up in Budapest and Vienna. She briefly enrolled in the Budapest Academy of Arts, but soon abandoned it to train as a potter. Zeisel became one of the twentieth century’s first industrial designers: her skills and experience led to jobs in various ceramic factories, and after traveling to the Soviet Union in 1932, she became the Artistic Director for the Porcelain and Glass Industries. In 1936, Zeisel was falsely accused of plotting against Stalin, and was imprisoned for over a year, most of which in solitary confinement.
In 1938 Zeisel immigrated to the United States, and she has lived and worked in New York ever since that time. In the USA she went on to design wares for the Hall China Company, Red Wing Pottery, and many other companies. Her career progressed so rapidly that the Museum of Modern Art and Castleton China commissioned her to design the first modern porcelain dinnerware for the United States. Her work on that project became the subject of the first one-woman show at the Museum of Modern Art. Zeisel’s designs are present in the collections of Crate and Barrel, Nambé, Chantal, and numerous others.
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