Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-11

Distinguished men and women in
the arts and professions have come
to the United States from every ma
ton in Europe and the British Isles
since the war began. Many were
refugees from Nazi terrorism; others
have come in the service of their re-
spective countries.
| Lea Halpern, noted ceramist from
the Netherlands, called in her own
land the princess of Dutch potters, -
came for somewhat different rea-
son. An exhibition of her superb
achievements in pottery was invited
to be shown at the opening of Hol-
land House, Rockefeller Center, New
York City, early in 1910 Having
agreed, before the war broke, to
bring her work to America, Miss Hal
perm would not consider a change
of plan. She came over on the last
voyage of the S. S. Rotterdam, arriv-
ing in December, 1889, with 1873 ex-
amples of her work. Getting them
through the customs required one
month.
Asked if she had not feared the
German mines in the North Sea and
the wolf packs of submarines in
the Atlantic, she replied:
Il wanted to be on the same ship
with my collection. If my work
went down, I wanted to go down
with it.
Her First Visit Here
This devotion to her creations goes
far toward explaining their excel
lence, variety and originality. One
hundred and fifty examples are on
view until March 26 at the Phillips
Memorial Gallery. 1t is Miss Hal
pern's debut in Washington, but only
one in long series of exhibitions
she has held in many parts of Eu-
rope, England and the United States,
beginning with her earliest show in
Berlin in 1926.
Pottery is one of the oldest art
forms in existence and one in which
the essential shapes have changed
less than those of other arts. But
study of Miss Halpern's exhibition
will reveal effects of color and tex
ture entirely different from those
one has seen heretofore. Every
piece is unique. She does not work
or design for mass production.
1t is inspiring to talk with her
and to learn of her complete
dedication to her profession. She
studied in Berlin, Vienna and Hol-
land, mastering such subjects as
chemistry, physics, mineralogy and
metallurgy, as well as sculpture and
color. She considers eight years
the minimum length of time in
which the pottery technique can be
mastered. Although her reputation
has been established for nearly two
decades, she continues to study, to
search for new clays, and to carry
on experiments. This attitude is
startling to many of us today, who
want to compress our college studies
into fewer years, to learn an art or
skill in six weeks of summer school
and to become professionals after
few months of assisting some one.
800 Year-Old Wheel
1t is significant that she dug her
own clays, stocked and tended her
own oven and used in her Amster-
daw studio, a potter's wheel nearly
300 years old, which had been
handed down from father to son.
Each generation, she said, started
at the age of IL years to learn
the technique of pottery, and each
grew old and died on this Wheel"
as she expressed it, But the last
boy broke with the family tradition
in order to become an engineer, so
the wheel was given to her. In
response to inquiry as to how any
tool could stand up to three CEN
turtles of constant use she declared