1. Maija Grotell was an influential Finnish-American ceramic artist and educator.
13 Facts About Maija Grotell
1. 2.
Maija Grotell completed six years of graduate work at the University of Art and Design Helsinki housed in the Ateneum.
3.
Unable to find work after graduation, Maija Grotell left Finland for New York in 1927.
4.
Maija Grotell choose the United States because it was less regulated and offered more opportunities for ceramists and women.
5.
Maija Grotell clashed with Binns on his teaching methodology, preferring the potter's wheel to Binns's constructive method.
6.
In 1938, Maija Grotell took a position as the head of the ceramics program at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
7.
Maija Grotell initially been declined for the post because the school preferred a male instructor.
8.
At Cranbrook, Maija Grotell worked primarily with high-fire glazes and stoneware clay bodies.
9.
Maija Grotell discouraged imitation and promoted her students to develop their individual aesthetic.
10.
Maija Grotell was known to work all night at the studio on her own ceramics after teaching, quickly returning home to change cloths and then return to the studio before anyone arrived.
11.
Maija Grotell's dedicated work ethic eventually took its toll; in the early 1960s she developed a muscle condition that limited her ability to throw, which impacted her creative production.
12.
Maija Grotell's work was shown nationally at a time when ceramics were not often exhibited.
13.
Maija Grotell continued to participate in the Ceramic National every year between 1933 and 1960.