Figure of The Water (Das Wasser) from the Female Heads (Frauenkopf) Series

c. 1924–25

Figure of The Water (Das Wasser) from the Female Heads (Frauenkopf) Series, c. 1924–25. Bimini Werkstätten (Austrian, Vienna, 1923–1955), Dina Kuhn (Austrian, 1891–1963). Earthenware; overall: 36.9 x 19.7 x 18.5 cm (14 1/2 x 7 3/4 x 7 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1929.438 Conceived as part of a series of allegorical female heads, The Water (Das Wasser) connects ideas of spirituality, feminism, and humanism in an age when female artists and designers were being taken seriously in the commercial artistic community as never before. This figure by Viennese ceramicist Dina Kuhn, one of only four known of the same subject, was modeled shortly after Kuhn took up her position as head of ceramic design at the Bimini workshop in Vienna, known for its glass production. The figure was displayed at the 1925 world's fair in Paris and subsequently toured the United States in an exhibition of curated works from that fair. Such strong depictions of women had a profound impact on young sculptors and designers working in clay in America, among them Viktor Schreckengost, whose early style closely followed that of Kuhn and the artistic community in Vienna. This figure was likely purchased from an exhibition of works that had been displayed at the 1925 world's fair in Paris.