Visual art
Maija Grotell
1899–1973 · ceramic artist, teacher
Finnish-born potter who led Cranbrook's ceramics department for 28 years and is often called the mother of American studio ceramics.
- Born
Helsinki, Finland- Died
Pontiac, Michigan
aged 74- Detroit years
- 1938–1973
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Grotell trained in Helsinki and emigrated to the United States in 1927, teaching in New York before Cranbrook recruited her. In 1938 she became head ceramics instructor at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills and stayed until she retired in 1966, building the department into one of the most respected in the country. She was known for bold stoneware vessels with richly layered glazes and for her patient, demanding teaching; her students included Toshiko Takaezu and Richard DeVore. Her glaze research also reached architecture: Eero Saarinen drew on her glazes for the colored glazed brick of the General Motors Technical Center in Warren. She spent the rest of her life in Michigan and died in Pontiac in 1973.
Highlights
- Head of ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art, 1938–1966
- Her glazes were used on the GM Technical Center's glazed brick
- Silver medal, Paris International Exposition, 1937
- Widely called the mother of American ceramics
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1938–1966
Cranbrook Academy of Art
Where she headed the ceramics department for 28 years.
Related place · 1950s
General Motors Technical Center
Saarinen used her glaze formulas for the campus's colored glazed brick walls.