Fritz Spitzer (1940-1999)

My father's professional area was social work. With the same enthusiasm he lent to this work, Fritz also engaged himself in painting, writing, house renovation and ceramics - this page is dedicated to the latter.

 

Marke der Adlervase

 

For me, my father's most admirable quality was his tolerance toward people in general. He was, however, quite critical of his own art work. One of his favourite sayings was "if there was a single good piece in the kiln, it was a good firing". Few of Fritz's finished pieces followed trends of the art and craft markets, and no idea was ruled out from the beginning. Fritz developed his often humorous sculptures and vessels quite playfully. He found inspiration in South American and Japanese ceramics, just as he did in European sculpture. Fritz was focused on the individual piece, even if it was tiny. He examined his work carefully after the firing, observed it from every perspective, and then judged it good or bad. Even the pieces that my father found to be failures were kept, nothing was worthless for him. From a multitude of Fritz's successful ceramic pieces, only a small selection can be shown here, but these provide an initial insight into his ceramic work.