A squat, ornamental vase in shades of terra cotta and gray by renowned West German studio art potter Eva Fritz-Lindner.  The graceful, abstracted décor depicts, perhaps, a parade of foxes—circling the vase head-to-tail on what appears to be a wide-open tundra with mountains in the far distance. [Photos below include a vignette of the three Fritz-Lindner pieces in inventory.]

EVA FRITZ-LINDNER (1933–2017) was a celebrated folk-art sculptor and ceramicist whose work is avidly pursued today by collectors worldwide. Born in Düsseldorf in 1933, she served as an apprentice at the Werkkunstschule—the applied arts training center in Wiesbaden—from 1949 through 1954, and as a student in sculptor Erich Kuhn’s (1890–1967) master class for the last two. At the age of 22, Fritz-Lindner was awarded the Grand Prix at a 1955 exhibition in Cannes: Five Millennia of German Ceramics. Later that year, she was hired as a master designer by the State Majolica Manufactory in Karlsruhe (MAJOLIKA KARLSRUHE). She remained employed there for nearly a decade, through 1963, and quickly became one of its most popular artists. Major accolades earned during this tenure were a 1958 Baden-Württemberg Arts Prize and the Silver Medal at the International Ceramics Exhibition in Prague in 1962.

Stepping out of the limelight she had never fully embraced, Fritz-Lindner withdrew to her private studio in Karlsruhe-Durlach in 1964 and started to freelance exclusively. She designed and created hundreds of ceramic folk-art sculptures rendered with creativity and whimsy. Animals (owls, in particular) and family were frequent themes. Her success led to commissions for larger works for public and private gardens and buildings; examples include mosaic wall designs in Mannheim, Schwäbisch Gmünd, and Göppingen. Of particular note were four enormous outdoor owl sculptures created for the Palace Gardens in Karlsruhe in 1967. Whatever the size of the work, Fritz-Lindner hand-painted each of her creations distinctly and colorfully. On occasion, she would supply designs for glassworks to be produced in Murano, Italy. Fritz-Lindner died in 2017.

Fritz-Lindner’s ceramics are held in numerous prestigious institutions, including the Hetjens-Museum Düsseldorf, the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, the Württemberg State Museum Stuttgart, and the Museo National de Cerámica Valencia, as well as in public gardens and private collections throughout the world.