Ernst HÄUSERMANN

Ernst Häusermann is one of the most important studio potters in Switzerland and an internationally recognized artist. He is also known as a sculptor and object artist. In addition, he had already played the piano in a pop jazz band at an early age.

Short biography of Ernst Häusermann

1947 born in Lenzburg, Canton Aargau, Switzerland – works in the school holidays with the ceramist Arnold Zahner (Rheinfelden, Canton Aargau), related to Häusermann – founds and plays piano in pop-jazz band 1967-1969 apprenticeship as a potter with the ceramist Arnold Zahner; Häusermann also attended courses in spatial design and drawing at the Basel School of Applied Arts – works with the ceramist Arnold Zahner as well as with the ceramist Jean-Claude de Crousaz (Bernex, Canton Geneva) – Further education abroad

1972 founds his own workshop in Oberkulm, Canton Aargau from 1972 teaches at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich (Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich) modeling and ceramic design 1979 Westerwald Prize in the context of the exhibition “German Ceramics 79” (“Deutsche Keramik 79”), Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany 1984 moves the studio to Lenzburg 1994 Study stay at the artist’s studio of the Canton of Aargau in Prague

The potter about the material clay

With clay as a material, Ernst Häusermann sees the danger that one is quickly satisfied with what one has created, provided that one does not set one’s own standards for the design very high [1]:

“The difficult and the demanding thing about working with clay is that you have to build up in yourself the limitation that another material gives you in hardness as resistance. This requires practice and a knowledge of the material. In this, those who do pottery professionally differ from all the amateur potters who can produce something relatively quickly. But then the form has not passed through one, it has not been implemented. The person who made it is not in it …”  [2]

Ernst Häusermann in the media

There are also various features about Ernst Häusermann in the media, for example on Swiss television:

• Report about the first exhibition of Ernst Häusermann in Lenzburg and his Pop-Jazz-Band, Schweizer Fernsehen (SRF) from 13.5.1970
 
• Ted Scapa visiting Ernst Häusermann, Schweizer Fernsehen (SRF) from 4.6.1991

Sources

[1] Messerli Bolliger, Barbara (von Orelli, Barbara): Ein Gespräch mit Ernst Häusermann, in: Museum Burghalde: Keramik der Region. Lenzburg 1987, p. 82.

[2] Messerli Bolliger, Barbara (von Orelli, Barbara): Ein Gespräch mit Ernst Häusermann, in: Museum Burghalde: Keramik der Region. Lenzburg 1987, p. 92.

[3] Messerli Bolliger, Barbara (von Orelli, Barbara): Ein Gespräch mit Ernst Häusermann, in: Museum Burghalde: Keramik der Region. Lenzburg 1987, p. 84.

Artworks by Ernst Häusermann

Ernst Häusermann made relatively few pieces with the same glaze, because as soon as he was able to “reliably produce” the glaze, the tension in him that lies in the risk of failure was lost. Or, to put it another way, if the vessels came out of the kiln “beautiful” in rows, the playful instinct in him would no longer be appealed to. [3]