Applying a handle to a mug at the Heath factory, circa 1960.
Brian and Edith Heath_Heath Ceramics Collection, Environmental Design Archives, UC Berkeley
The Oakland Museum of California will soon be home to more than 100 objects by Edith Heath under a major gift that cements the pioneering ceramicist’s legacy in the Bay Area.
The gift from the Brian and Edith Heath Foundation, which spans works from the 1940s to the 1980s, includes hand-thrown vessels, experimental pieces and her highly coveted mid-century dinnerware, along with a $1 million endowment to support the preservation of craft and decorative arts in the museum’s collection.
“This extraordinary gift deepens OMCA’s ability to tell the story of California creativity and innovation,” Lori Fogarty, executive director and CEO of OMCA, said in a statement. “Edith Heath transformed ceramics by uniting art, science, and industry, and her work helped define a distinctly California approach to modern living.”
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The foundation’s choice to bestow OMCA with the pieces is partly a sentimental one, according to Jay Stewart, trustee of the Brian and Edith Heath Foundation.
“One of Edith’s favourite Sunday jaunts was to the Oakland Museum,” Stewart said in a statement, noting that at any given stop there, “she made me feel that I was visiting ‘her’ museum.”
Edith Heath at the wheel, undated.
Oakland Museum of California/Brian and Edith Heath/Heath Ceramics Collection, Environmental Design Archives, UC Berkeley.
The decision also builds upon a relationship between Heath and OMCA that dates back to the museum’s opening in 1969, when Heath donated some of her early pieces.
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“Over the years, seeing her work in thoughtful, community-centered exhibitions like ‘Edith Heath: A Life in Clay’ really affirmed for us that OMCA is the right home for this gift,” Stewart told the Chronicle.
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Works by Heath are currently on view at the museum’s Gallery of California Art.
Edith Kiertzner Heath (May 24, 1911–Dec. 27, 2005) was born to Danish farmers in rural Ida Grove, Iowa. After studying arts education, she graduated in 1934 from the school that later became Chicago Teachers College. She took her first class in ceramics at the Chicago Art Institute.
She met Brian Heath in 1938 while the two were working at a Federal Art Project school where Edith was studying with Hungarian artist and Bauhaus instructor László Moholy-Nagy. The couple married three months later and moved to San Francisco where Brian worked with the American Red Cross and Edith created ceramics in their home.
Heath Dinnerware/Finest California Stoneware brochure, 1948.
Courtesy of the Brian and Edith Heath/Heath Ceramics Collection, Environmental Design Archives, U.C. Berkeley/Courtesy Environmental Design Ar
When Brian and Edith Heath opened Heath Ceramics in Sausalito in 1948, her work was considered a revolutionary departure from the delicate European fine china that was mostly made of white clay. Edith’s experiments with darker native California clays and the creation of handmade shapes reflected not only the more relaxed lifestyle of the state, but the more streamlined ethos of post-World War II design.
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Like fellow married multidisciplinary designers Charles and Ray Eames, the Heaths sought to make lasting, functional items with a refined modern aesthetic accessible to everyday consumers. Heath’s tablewares and architectural tile have been praised as icons of midcentury modern design.
In 2003, Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey purchased the Heath company and has since expanded into a Mission District design studio.
“Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics truly embody California and what we think of when we think of California design — a deep commitment to beauty and craft being part of everyday lived experience,” Fogerty told the Chronicle.
Among the highlights of the gift are hand-formed works related to Heath’s 1944 exhibition at Legion of Honor, early pieces produced for a collaboration with Gump’s department store and stoneware vases featured in Ceramics Monthly in 1958.
Several of the pieces in the gift were previously exhibited at the Oakland Museum in the shows “The Potter’s Art in California” (1978) and “Edith Heath: A Life in Clay” (2021), the first major retrospective of Heath.
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In 2019, the Heaths were the subjects of the documentary “Heath Ceramics: The Making of a California Classic” by Chris Metzler and Quinn Costello.
Heath Ceramics bowl, 1966-1972. Glazed stoneware. Collection of Oakland Museum of California. Gift of The Brian and Edith Heath Foundation.
Oakland Museum of California
“We are so grateful for this gift and the commitment it represents —to this community, to the tradition of great, accessible design, and to a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that Edith Heath demonstrated throughout her life and career,” Fogarty said.
As part of the museum’s commitment to presenting and preserving craft, OMCA also announced that Isabel Elson-Enriquez has been appointed the Imogene Gieling Associate Curator of Craft and Decorative Arts.
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The position is funded by the late Bay Area jewelry designer Imogene Gieling.
“Craft has long been central to California’s creative identity,” Makeda Best, OMCA’s deputy director of curatorial affairs said in a statement. “This transformative gift of Edith Heath’s work, along with the creation of a dedicated curatorial role, allows us to deepen our engagement with the artists and makers who have shaped the region’s cultural landscape.”