Manz, Bodil

First name: 
Bodil
Surname: 
Manz
Year of birth: 
1943
Birthplace: 
Copenhagen
Country of birth: 
Denmark
CV: 

Bodil Manz is born in Copenhagen in 1943. After graduating from the School of Arts and Craft, Copenhagen in 1965 she went on to study at the Escuela de Disneño y Artesanias in Mexico and Berkeley University in California. She established a studio with her late husband, ceramist Richard Manz, in 1967 in Horve, where she continues to live and work today. Manz has had solo exhibitions in Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam, London and New York and in 2008 was honoured with a major retrospective exhibition at the Kunstindustrimuseet in Copenhagen. Her work is represented in public collections worldwide including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Musée de Sèvres, France and the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan. In 2007 she was awarded the Grand Prize at the 4th World Ceramic Biennale, Korea (Text: Gallery Besson, London).

Pictures: Bodil Manz, portrait around 1993 (In: European Ceramics, Höhr Grenzhausen 1993); Bodil in her workshop (source Garth Clark); Bodil in 2013 (source TALK); Bodil Manz in her workshop (source sn.dk); large container, height 23,7 cm, width 53,6 cm (source Botterweg Auctions Amsterdam october 2017); bowl, porcelain (source liveauctioneers).

 

Work of the artist: 

Bodil Manz is a many-sided artist, producing unique pieces as well as designs for tea-and dinner sets and large wall decorations. Her unique cast porcelain pieces are white, transparant and wafer-thin, like paper.The forms are mostly cylindrical or oval, sometimes polygonal. Both to the in- and outside she sparingly applies decorations, in geometrical motives, mainly lines and planes. These enter a dialogue and form one composition. They are applied by means of transfers, or screen printing. Due to the remarkable clarity, refined simplicity and harmony, the porcelain made by Bodil Manz belongs to the absolute top of contemporary European ceramic art (text Galerie Amphora, Oosterbeek NL).