A mold-cast ceramic figurine of a story teller (Uncle Remus) with a young girl seated on his knee. Two dogs are at his feet as well. The piece is signed under the glaze at the back of the base and the artist's name is also incised in the interior. Also painted in the interior is "Federal Art Project Cleveland Ohio". The figurine measures 5-1/2"H 2-3/4"W x 4"D.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1905, Edris was given the name Edythe Aline Eckhardt. After graduating from Cleveland's East High she enrolled in the painting program at Cleveland School of Art, graduating in 1932. While enrolled in school she worked part-time at Cowan Pottery where she learned production techniques and firing schedules of various ceramic materials. Edythe changed her name to the non-gender-specific name Edris in her mid-twenties after being passed over for an award to study sculpture in Europe because she was a woman. Following graduation Edris studied sculpture with Alexander Archipenko in Woodstock, New York. She returned to Cleveland that same year. She was hired as a faculty member of Cleveland School and taught at the institution for 30 years. From 1935-1942 Ms. Eckhardt was the head of the Ceramics and Sculpture division of the Federal Art Project (later known as Works Progress Administration - WPA) of Cleveland. During this time frame she won first prize of the 1936 Cleveland Museum of Art May Show for her "Alice in Wonderland" figure, third Prize in the 1937 May Show for a "Song of the South" figure, exhibited her work at the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco and in the 1939 New York World's Fair. Eleanor Roosevelt commissioned Edris to sculpt a figure of Huckleberry Finn. It was completed and installed near a reflecting pond in 1939. Edris received her first John Simon Guggenheim Award for Fine Arts in 1955. Her second Guggenheim Award for Fine Arts was presented in 1959. She used her first Guggenheim award to study glass in France, England and Italy. She was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship in 1956, the same year she presented a paper at the International Glass Congress in Paris. The City of Cleveland awarded Edris The Cleveland Arts Prize in 1971. The awarded recognized her as a "Pioneer in Glass Sculpture".
800/1,200 Sold $690.00
back to catalog
