Werner Burri teaching students how to throw ceramic objects (from Tschabold 1945).
Ceramics by Werner Burri in CERAMICA CH
Andreas Heege, 2022
The following compilation does not claim to be exhaustive. It is merely intended to convey the basic information about Werner Burri’s life. Werner Burri taught pottery making at the Bern School of Ceramics from 1941 to 1963, thus having a deep influence on many of the potters in the Canton of Bern and in the German-speaking part of Switzerland in general. The dates presented here were taken from the literature (Schnyder 1985; particularly in-depth and most recently Messerli 2017, 135-158).
1898, 18th October Werner Burri is born in Bern.
1919-1920 Studies engineering at the Polytechnikum in Zurich (now Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH) but drops out to concentrate on painting.
1921, autumn, studies at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, attending the preparatory course taught by Johannes Itten. Transfers to the Bauhaus Pottery Workshop in Dornburg an der Saale (director Gerhard Marcks).
1922, 1st April Start of apprenticeship in Dornburg, expiration of the contract 31/3/1925.
1924/25, Winter semester final examination in pottery making.
1925 Bauhaus moves to Dessau, where it no longer runs a pottery workshop. Until 1st June 1927 Burri works as a journeyman in the Dornburg workshop which is now managed by Otto Lindig.
1927, July Burri begins working at the Velten-Vordamm refined white earthenware factory and first comes into contact with Hedwig Bollhagen, head of the painting department.
1927, December The reference from Gerhard Marcks for Werner Burri reads: “Mr Werner Burri worked as a craftsman in the Bauhaus pottery workshop for a period of five years, partly under my instruction. He proved himself to be independently talented both in design and in execution. I would consider his graphic skills to be high, with an unusual sensitivity and rich imagination. Based on his talent and his training, Mr Burri would be very capable of teaching and instructing a class. Hall 10. XII 27 signed Prof. G. Marcks” (Burri estate).
1928, 26th January Head of the model and mould workshop at the Velten-Vordamm refined white earthenware factory, where he is responsible for many of the well-known pottery series and individual pieces (Dittmar 1997, 17). Three sketch pads survive from this period.
1931 Liquidation of the Velten-Vordamm refined white earthenware factory, Burri returns to Switzerland.
1932-1933 Works at the La Chapelle workshop of Marcel Noverraz (1899-1972) in Carouge.
1934, from April Works at Perugia (C.I.M.A., Consorzio Italiano Maioliche Artistiche) and Deruta. Resides in Oberwil in the Simmental valley.
1934-1939 in the summer months before the outbreak of the Second World War, works as a freelance artisan at the HB-Werkstätten für Keramik with Hedwig Bollhagen in Marwitz near Velten (Dittmar 1997, 19). Products by Werner Burri. At Marwitz, influenced by his former colleague Charles Crodel, he begins to us sgraffito decoration on his pottery: “he often also decorated them with still lifes, ships, floral, fanciful as well as richly figurative motifs […], animal depictions, cheerful figurative scenes with couples and nudes, often putti, Italian female figures with wine, Bacchus, children, Christmas scenes etc. To create these motifs, he used […] the sgraffito technique applying a light-coloured slip on a dark fabric (usually dark-brown to black clay containing manganese) and sometimes combining this with partial coloured underglaze painting” (Heger 2005, 93-94, 368-369).
1941, 19th May, Reopening of the Bern School of Ceramics in the old premises under the leadership of teacher and principal Benno Geiger (until 1969/1970, on Geiger see Schnyder 1985; Messerli 2017) and technical teacher Werner Burri (until 1963, on Burri see Schnyder 1985; Messerli 2017). By electing Geiger and Burri, Bern’s Government Council hires two highly qualified specialists who, thanks to their time spent abroad, have brought back many influences (and differences!) both from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Bauhaus Pottery Workshop in Dornburg, which will have an impact on their styles. Until his retirement, Burri commutes to Bern from Oberwil in the Simmental valley every day. He never has his own workshop, and all his works after 1941 are made at the Bern School of Ceramics.
1942, 1st January, The School of Ceramics receives its own rules and regulations.
1942 The School of Ceramics moves from Felsenburg Castle into bigger premises at 63 Spitalackerstrasse in Bern.
Report on the School of Ceramics in an unknown magazine, between 1945 and 1950.
1951 The goals of the potters’ training in Bern: “Before we became teachers, both of us had spent long periods abroad, one in Berlin, the other in Vienna and Paris. This actually made us modern old practicians. All the same, we said: we are in Bern; Bern has a well-known ceramic tradition; obviously we will draw on this tradition. On the other hand we did not want to slavishly copy the old Heimberg and Langnau pots but took inspiration from the solid craftsmanship in terms of their shapes, the vibrancy of their colours and the naïve cheerfulness of their depictions and in that way arrive at our own novel solutions over time. We wanted to be plants, as it were, with our roots firmly in the old ground of home while our blossoms would sprout in new shapes and colours.” (Geiger 1952, 8-9). Finding out whether these goals were achieved would require a comparison between the list of students (in Messerli 2017) and their individual life’s work (cf. e.g. Jakob Stucki, Franz Loder and Margret Loder-Rettenmund).
1959 The School of Ceramics in the media
1950s The sgraffito decorations are replaced by shapes made up of simple lines and eventually Burri completely abandons the idea of decorating his pottery, creating thin-walled, slender vases playfully arranged in groups (Schnyder 1985, 13-15), and in the end restricting himself to unglazed biscuit-fired objects. Fearing that his late works will not be understood, Burri declines all invitations to exhibit. The central theme of his late work is “What remains in the end is the form itself” (Messerli 2017, 153).
1959 Burri is one of the founding members of the Swiss Ceramic Association.
1960 The School of Ceramics and some of the foremost students of its pottery class present their work in an exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zurich (Fischli/Rotzler 1960).
1963 Werner Burri retires. He is succeeded by Urs Adolf Gremli.
1972, 13th May, Having suffered several strokes, Werner Burri dies at the Engeried retirement home in Bern. The Swiss Ceramic Association uses its 7th exhibition, held at Schadau Castle, to pay tribute to him (Thuner Tagblatt, Volume 95, Issue 155, 5th July 1972; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Issue 340, 24th July 1972).
1985 Retrospective exhibition at Spiez Castle: Werner Burri, Benno Geiger, Jakob Stucki and Margrit Daepp-Linck (Thuner Tagblatt, Volume 109, Issue 163, 16th July 1985; see Schnyder 1985).
2019 To mark the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus, the Hetjens-Museum in Düsseldorf runs an exhibition of designs by Walter Burri: Wechselwirkungen – Meister und Gesellen des Bauhauses zwischen Werkstatt und Industrie. [Interplay – Masters and students of Bauhaus between workshop and industry]
Pottery by Werner Burri at the Drammens Museum
Pottery by Werner Burri and Luise Harkort at MFA, Boston
Translation Sandy Haemmerle
References:
Dittmar 1997
Monika Dittmar, Vollendung des Einfachen : Hedwig Bollhagen wird neunzig ; eine Ausstellung des Fördervereins Ofen- und Keramikmuseum Velten e.V., Velten 1997.
Geiger 1952
Benno Geiger, Keramische Fachschule Bern 1941 -1951, Bern 1952.
Heger 2005
Andreas Heger, Keramik zum Gebrauch – Hedwig Bollhagen und die HB-Werkstätten für Keramik, Dissertation, Weimar 2005.
Messerli 2017
Christoph Messerli, 100 Jahre Berner Keramik. Von der Thuner Majolika bis zum künstlerischen Werk von Margrit Linck-Daepp (1987-1983). Hochschulschrift (Datenträger CD-ROM), Bern 2017, bes. 135-158 (zu Werner Burri).
Schnyder 1985
Rudolf Schnyder, Vier Berner Keramiker. Werner Burri, Benno Geiger, Margrit Linck, Jakob Stucki, Bern 1985.
Tschabold 1945
Alfred Tschabold, Geschichte des Gewerbemuseums 1869-1944, in: Kantonales Gewerbemuseum Bern, 75 Jahre Kantonales Gewerbemuseum Bern 1869-1944, Bern 1945, 9-51.
Tschabold 1969
Alfred Tschabold, 100 Jahre Gewerbemuseum in Bern. Zeittafel zu seiner Geschichte 1869 bis 1969, Bern 1969.
