Lucie Rie DBE was an Austrian-born British ceramics artist. Born on March 16, 1902 in Vienna, Austria, she studied pottery at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule, a school of arts and crafts. Rie’s works, usually consisting of hand-thrown pots, bottles, and bowl forms, are noteworthy for their Modernist forms and her use of bright colors. In 1937, she won a silver medal at the Paris International Exhibition and by the following year, Rie moved to London to flee Nazi Austria. Once settled in the British capitol, she maintained a small studio and continued to produce pottery and small clay objects, including ceramic buttons and jewelry which she sold to support herself. She taught at the Camberwell School of Art from 1960 until 1971, and in 1991 was honored as with the title of Dame Commander (DCE). Though Rie continued her ceramic practice into her 80s, a series of strokes forced her to stop working in the final years of her life, and she died on April 1, 1995 at the age of 93 in London, England.
