IMM COLOGNE 2020 | FEATURED
Ceramic art

HB-Werkstätten für Keramik, founded by Hedwig Bollhagen, have advanced historical structural and garden ceramics and will be presenting these at imm cologne 2020.

by Daniel von Bernstorff | 1/9/2020

The Bogler lamp from the HB-Werkstätten is a modification of the famous ceramic designs, Theodor Bogler created at the Bauhaus in 1923.
Photo: HB Werkstätten

The artist Hedwig Bollhagen (1907-2001) is known primarily for her simple and timeless ceramics for everyday use, with which she managed to bridge the gap between regional crafts traditions and Bauhaus aesthetics. The HB-Werkstätten für Keramik workshops in Marwitz near Berlin, which she managed from 1934 through 2001, are closely tied to her work. Less widely known is Bollhagen’s multifaceted work in the field of structural ceramics, which began as early as 1935 with ceramic panels based on designs by painter Charles Crodel. Following them, numerous structural ceramics works by renowned artists were realized in the HB-workshops. An outstanding example is the interior of the building complex for the Dynamo Berlin sports club, which was built between 1955 and 1959 and is now a listed building. In the year 1951 a commission to create custom windows for Chorin Abbey marked the start of an impressive sequence of monument preservation projects, which was to include for example Rotes Rathaus and Märkisches Museum in Berlin.

Since 2011 the topic of structural ceramics has once more been the focus of HB-Werkstätten with their garden ceramics product series. Reason enough to emphasize this exciting topic as part of the presentation at this year’s imm cologne: HB-Werkstätten have teamed up with VIA to create cement tiles featuring a reinterpretation of three patterns by Hedwig Bollhagen, which are currently on display in an exhibition at the Neue Sammlung in Munich. In the area of garden ceramics, the presentation moreover includes the new edition of a planting bowl, originally designed for the Sportforum Dynamo Berlin. A series of historical tile topped tables and a garden bench is also being reissued.

What’s more, visitors to the fair will have a chance to enjoy the Bogler Lamp, created on the occasion of the 100th Bauhaus anniversary. Its design is based on the ceramic form of a bottle by Theodor Bogler, who was the first to apply the building block system devised by Walter Gropius to ceramics. While Bogler was famous for his so-called combination tea pot, the newly issued luminaire based on his design ideally combines light and the ceramic arts.

HB-Werkstätten für Keramik at imm cologne (January 13 through to 19, 2020, Koelnmesse):
Hall 4.2, booth E029b