Maria Baumgartner


Maria Baumgartner is an Austrian studio potter and was professor of ceramics at the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz.

Biography

From 1972 to 1979 Maria Baumgartner studied ceramics at the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz and graduated as Master of Fine Arts. 1980 she founded her first studio near Lienz/ Tirol and worked there as freelance artist until 2014.
1986 she additionally started working as Assistant professor at the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz and continued her career there as Associate professor until her retirement in 2014. 2015 she founded a new studio in Puchenau near Linz. Besides being artist and professor she also acted as curator and academic author in the field of ceramic art.

Work

As artist she won awards, prizes and grants in Austria, Germany, Croatia und Hungary. She participated in 40 personal and 140 group exhibitions in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Belgium, Czechia, Spain, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia, Latvia, Turkey, Egypt, USA, Korea and Japan. Her artworks can be found in several art museums and other well known public or private art collections, like the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, the Museum of Design, Zürich, Sèvres – Cité de la céramique, France, the Igal & Diane Silber Collection, Laguna Beach/ Cal., the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona/Cal., the Panevėžys Civic Art Gallery, the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Mino Ceramic Park, Gifu, the Grassi Museum, Leipzig, or the collection of the Veste Coburg.
Maria Baumgartner herself writes about her recent objects of ceramic art: "My objects are each built up and hand-formed to their individual shape. The surface is smoothed only partially. This free development of the ceramic form can be seen in the sometimes dissolving rims and in the often thin-walled shells of the objects. The forms are inspired by an architectural aesthetic, hinting at vertical axes, playing with orthogonal or other geometric structures, but deconstructing, tilting and intertwining them. Thus a positive disquiet can be experienced. The entire surface of the ceramic objects is worked out in multiple layering by paintbrush, sgraffito or other pictorial techniques. Aim is to reach the impression of »three-dimensional paintings«"
The following pictures show this formative development of the ceramic sculptural objects by Maria Baumgartner: starting from experimenting with circular or cylindrical forms, she developed more complicated objects, using thin-walled wavelike shapes with experimental glazes, or more solid houselike structures with straight angles. Now her objects are a free combination of various geometric shapes and conceptional graphics

Internationally significant awards (a selection)

Internationally significant exhibitions (a selection)

Publications (a selection)

Die Österreich-Seite: »Man muss in die Werkstatt gehen«. Über Franz Josef Altenburg, no. 5, pp. 583–584.Keramikerinnen in Salzburg . In: Wally, Barbara : Künstlerinnen in Salzburg. ed. Museum Carolino Augusteum, Salzburg 1991,, pp. 83–98.Ceramics in Austria – Survival in the Invisible. In: European Ceramic from 13 counties: exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche Osnabrück. ed. Rasch 1998,, pp. 120–123.GARDEN OF CLAY. An exhibition of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024 within the project „City of Ceramics“ Gmunden'', ed. Society for Promoting European Ceramic Artists, Gmunden 2024,.