Born: 1902. Died: 1995.

Rie, born in Vienna, is one of the best known modern potters.  Her work has featured in books and on television, and is represented in many public collections of studio pottery.  In the early 1960s she was described as a 'studio potter who was not rustic but metropolitan: her work had no nostalgic undertones of folk art'.  Rie studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna under Powolny from 1922 - 6 and established a studio in Vienna in 1928.  In 1938 she came to England and set up a studio in Albion Mews, London.  Her earliest work in England comprised buttons, brooches and tableware.  Her first exhibition in this country was held at the Old Berkeley Gallery in 1949.  Between 1946 and 1959 Rie shared her studio with Hans Coper.  Like Coper she taught at Camberwell and their influence as teachers cannot be overestimated.  In the 1950s she exhibited regularly in the Midland Group Exhibition held in Nottingham.  In 1981 the Sainsbury Centre organised a major retrospective of her work, followed by another at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Shallow Bowl