Elizabeth Hughes / Born 11th September 1940

Whitchurch, Shropshire, England into a Welsh Family
 

Studied harp at the Birmingham School of Music and then piano

at the Royal Academy of Music from 1958 to 1964
 

Starts making hand-built pots at home (self-taught) on the kitchen table in Primrose Hill in 1966

Marries Jean Mathis-Fritsch (m. 1966; div. 1971) a French architectural student from Paris; the  son of Jewish Intellectual philosopher of natural science published as Vilma Fritsch having fled Berlin, Germany into France during WWII.

Son Bertie is born in November 1966

​

 Fritsch studies ceramics at the Royal College of Art under

Prof. David Queensberry, Hans Coper, Eduardo Paolozzi and Lucie Rie

Fritsch is one of the first of a group of pioneering women ceramicists ‘the RCA group’ to emerged from the Royal College of Art in London during 70s others included; Alison Britton, Jacqui Poncelet, Carol McNicoll, Jill Crowley and sculptor Glenys Barton. They formed a group of progressive 'New Ceramics' that emerged forming an important shift and influence in British ceramic art in terms of sculptural form, colour and experimentation away from the more utilitarian ceramics that had preceded.

MA (RCA) (with distinction) 1968-71

Receives Silver Medal (RCA) for Ceramics &

Herbert Read Memorial Prize for her thesis 1970-71

 

Lives in Copenhagen preparing for first solo exhibition as an artist in residence at the Bing & Grøndah Porcelain factory, Copenhagen and is a Prizewinner, Royal Copenhagen Jubilee Competition 1971-1972

​

Lives at Gestingthorpe Hall, Gestingthorpe, Essex Gestingthorpe, Essex which, was the home of Captain Lawrence

‘Titus” Oates. of the Scott Antarctic Expedition (1910) 1973

​

Solo exhibition Crafts Council, London Contributor to Ceramic Forms,

British Council touring exhibition to Europe

Crafts magazine issue 10 front cover photo by Philip Sayer

taken at Liz’s studio annex in Gestingthorpe Hall, 1974

 

Contributor to International British Council touring exhibitions from 1974

Lives in Belitha Villas, Islington, North London 1975

​

Digswell Arts Trust was set up by Henry Morris, a pioneering educationalist in 1957. Hans Coper had a studio at the trust from 1958

Henry Moore, Herbert Read, and Roland Penrose had supported the Trust by becoming Trustees. Fritsch lived and worked at Digswell Arts Trust a trust for professional artists in Welwyn Garden City, England from 1975 to 1983

 

Solo exhibition, IMPROVISATIONS: EARTH TO AIR,

British Craft Centre, London.

Ceramic forms by British artists (Glenys Barton, Paul Astbury, Jacqueline Poncelet, Elizabeth Fritsch, Jil Crowley, Geoffrey Swindell, Gordon Baldwin) 

Gold Medal, International Ceramics Competition, Sopot, Poland 1976

 

Elizabeth Fritsch, POTS ABOUT MUSIC

Authors: Elizabeth Fritsch, David Cripps,

Leeds City Art Gallery (England),

Essays by David Queensberry, Alison Britton, Ian Bennett.

Publisher, Leeds Art Galleries, ASIN B0007AT9X2, 1978

​

Solo exhibition, UK tour POTS ABOUT MUSIC, Temple Newsam House (Leeds City Art Galleries), touring to the City Art Galleries of Glasgow, Bristol, Bolton, Gateshead, Solo exhibition, Pots about Music,

Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1978-79

​

John Ruskin Bursary award for Fictional Archaeology project

Daughter Ruby Hughes (soprano singer) is born 1980

​

Solo exhibition, POTS FROM NOWHERE (fictional archaeology)

Royal College of Art, Queensberry - Hunt, London 1984

Sets up own studio in East London 1985

​

Elizabeth Fritsch in Studio: a View

Peter Dormer and David Cripps

ISBN 10: 094779204X / ISBN 13: 9780947792046

Published by Bellew Publishing Company London UK, 1985

​

Chosen for Bernard Leach Centenary Post Office Stamp issue with Hans Coper and Lucie Rie, leading to exhibition The Stamp of Fame, Fischer Fine Art, London 1987

​

Elizabeth Fritsch solo show at Galerie Besson,

London 11 October - 3 November 1989

​

Solo exhibition CROSS RHYTHMS AND COUNTERPOINT

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Judge for the Fletcher Challenge International Ceramics Competition, Auckland, New Zealand 1990

​

Solo exhibition (retrospective), Hetjens Museum, Dusseldorf 1990

​

Solo exhibition (retrospective), Pilscheur Fine Art, London 1992-93

​

Gold Medalist, Internationalen,

Handwerksmesse Visuelle Spiele, Munich 1993

​

Edward Lucie-Smith on Elizabeth Fritsch:

Vessels from another World, METAPHYSICAL POTS - Painted Stoneware,

Bellew Publishing, ISBN 1-85725-098-2

ISBN 978-1-85725-098-51993.

Solo exhibition (retrospective UK tour), VESSELS FROM ANOTHER WORLD, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, touring to the City Art Galleries of Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Norwich 1993-95

​

Solo exhibition, ORDER AND CHAOS, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, USA

Solo exhibition, Osiris Gallery, Brussels 1994

​

Awarded CBE for services to the Arts 1995

Elected to Senior Fellowship, Royal College of Art, London 1995

​

Solo exhibition (retrospective), touring to Munich, Karlsruhe,

Halle and Bellerive, Zurich 1995-96

​

Shortlisted Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts in Ceramics

Crafts Council, London, 10 August- 8 September 1996. 10 ceramicists featured in exhibition; Gordon Baldwin, Christie Brown, Jill Crowley, Ken Eastman, Philip Eglin, Elizabeth Fritsch, Ewen Henderson, Richard Slee, Martin Smith and Sutton Taylor. Crafts Council, London 1996

​

Contributor to Fifty Years of Craft, Contemporary Applied Art, London Solo exhibition, SEA PIECES, Contemporary Applied Art, London 1998

Solo exhibition, METAPHYSICAL VESSELS, Mobilia, Cambridge, USA

Solo exhibition, MEMORY OF ARCHITECTURE PART II

Galerie Besson, London 2000

​

Artist representation by art dealer Adrian Sassoon begins

at International art fairs from 2000 to the present day

​

Shortlisted again for the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts in Ceramics:

Felicity Aylieff, Alison Britton, Lubna Chowdhary, Edmund de Waal, James Evans, Elizabeth Fritsch, Walter Keeler, Carol McNicoll, Nicholas Rena and Richard Slee, Crafts Council, London 2001

​

Solo exhibition (retrospective), Bonhams, London Solo exhibition,

Anthony Hepworth Gallery, Bath 2007

​

Elizabeth Fritsch (Fine Art Society, London 12 - 27 November 2008)

Essay by  Andrew Lambirth, ISBN 10090506257, 2008

Solo exhibition, Fine Art Society in association with Joanna Bird,

148 New Bond Street, London 2008

​

Solo (major retrospective) DYNAMIC STRUCTURES: PAINTED VESSELS Exhibition themes: Water of Greenness - Fire and Earth Fireworks - Earthworks - Air and Music

National Museum of Wales, Cardiff 2010

​

Solo show ELIZABETH FRITSCH

Important Works from the Artist’s Studio at FRIEZE MASTERS

Presented by Adrian Sassoon Gallery co-curated by Elizabeth Fritsch within the STAND OUT section curated by Luke Syson Director & Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum

FRIEZE MASTERS 11 – 15 OCTOBER 2023 Regents Park, London