id: 160759 accession number: 1998.92 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.92 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:38.431000 Vase, c. 1929. Thelma Frazier Winter (American, 1908–1977), Cowan Pottery Studio (American, Ohio, Rocky River, 1912–1931). Ceramic; overall: 25.2 cm (9 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the family in memory of Donald and Elsa Barringer 1998.92 title: Vase title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1929 creation date earliest: 1924 creation date latest: 1934 current location: creditline: Gift of the family in memory of Donald and Elsa Barringer copyright: --- culture: America, Ohio, Cleveland technique: ceramic department: Decorative Art and Design collection: Decorative Arts type: Ceramic find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Thelma Frazier Winter (American, 1908–1977) - designed by Frazier grew up in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and studied ceramics with Julius Mihalik at the Cleveland School of Art, graduating in 1929. In the late 1920s she and sculptor Waylande Gregory worked at Cowan Pottery as the firm’s principal artists. She first exhibited in the 1934 May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and continued to do so until 1949. She showed in the annual National Ceramic exhibitions in Syracuse, New York (1935–58), where in 1939 she became the first woman to win a first place award. After a post graduate study in art education at Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Ohio State University, she began teaching in Cleveland public schools. In 1939 the Little Gallery of Cleveland College mounted an exhibition of her works. That year she married the enamelist Edward Winter, whom she had met at Cowan Pottery. She continued to paint and work with clay until the late 1950s, garnering several large-scale ceramic commissions from churches and schools. In 1958, under her husband’s influence, Winter took up enameling, and collaborated with him on a number of enamel mural commissions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Transformations in Cleveland Art. (CMA, 1996), p. 241
Biographical information exists in the Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. * Cowan Pottery Studio (American, Ohio, Rocky River, 1912–1931) - made at The Cowan Pottery Studio was founded by R. Guy Cowan in Lakewood, Ohio, United States in 1912. It moved to Rocky River, Ohio in 1920, and operated until 1931, when the financial stress of the Great Depression resulted in its bankruptcy. Cowan Pottery produced both artistic and commercial work in a variety of styles influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Deco, Chinese ceramics, and modern sculpture.

During its two decades of operation, a number of well-known Cleveland School artists worked with Cowan at the studio: Elizabeth Anderson, Arthur Eugene Baggs, Alexander Blazys, Paul Bogatay, Edris Eckhardt, Waylande Gregory, A. Drexler Jacobson, Raoul Josset, Paul Manship, José Martin, Herman Matzen, F. Luis Mora, Elmer L. Novotny, Margaret Postgate, Stephen Rebeck, Guy L. Rixford, Viktor Schreckengost, Elsa Vick Shaw, Walter Sinz, Frank N. Wilcox, H. Edward Winter, and Thelma Frazier Winter. With the exception of Guy Cowan, himself, Waylande Gregory designed more pieces for the pottery than anyone else. Among Cowan's finest pieces were three limited edition figures relating to dance, including "Salome" (1928), "The Nautch Dancer," (1930), and "The Burlesque Dancer," (1930). For the last two, Gregory made sketches from the side of the stage of the well-known Ziegfeld Follies star, Gilda Grey, when she was performing in Cleveland. --- measurements: Overall: 25.2 cm (9 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed T. Frazier translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES