For over fifty years Abe Cohn's hands have worked clay from a shapeless mass into
an artistic expression of form and function. Visitors to the Potters Wheel Gallery
will usually find him working quietly at the wheel or somewhere in the adjoining drying, finishing and firing rooms
of the studio.
| Abe also works as a mentor, training countless apprentices over the years. |
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| Working with his loving and devoted wife Ginka, they have been greatly responsible
for the establishment of a strong and cooperative Potter's Guild in Door County. |
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Looking back with them to their first summer here in 1956, one finds Door County
a very different place. In 1953 Abe established a studio in Milwaukee and was teaching over 50 students per week.
It was through teaching that he met and married his favorite student.
Ginka explains, "I had the car and he was a starving artist… On our first date we saw and heard Stravinsky
conducting his own music at the Pabst Theater."
Karen Lindsey, another student and a Peninsula resident urged Abe to come to Door County. But, concerns were voiced
in those days over whether "Door County" would accept the Cohns - not based on the quality of Abe's pottery
but because they were one of the first Jewish families to "open the Door". Abe and Ginka made a careful
assessment. Together they decided to gamble on Abe's future as the first potter in Door County, opening a studio
in downtown Fish Creek. |
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The landlord would not let Abe work with clay inside the house. |
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So, he built a simple shelter and threw pots outdoors. To this day, people are fascinated
to watch him at work.
| After 30 years of firing his outdoor kiln Abe built a new indoor Minnesota flat-top
car kiln in 1998, where he fires his gas-reduction pottery. |
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Both time and Door County have treated Abe Cohn very well. He is an ever-agile and
active man working nimbly, spinning clay into the forms he envisions. His studio and gallery have become expansive
and full of wonders. |
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Abe Cohn originally began his study of fine arts at the UW
Madison as a painter. He decided to take a "simple" clay course for an easy three credits. In so doing,
he met professor, author and nationally recognized potter F. Carlton Ball who influenced the direction Abe would
take for the rest of his life.
When Carlton Ball left Madison after Abe's first year working with him, Abe moved to California. There he enrolled
at Kentfield Jr. College because of their open studio policy - students could work as much as they wanted in the
ceramics lab. Abe would often spend 60 hours a week working with clay and glazes.
After a year out west he returned to Milwaukee. It was 1953. Abe opened a basement pottery studio while working
in the Layton Art school supply store.
Layton promised him a teaching position which never came to pass. So, Abe began teaching in his own studio. Soon
he had over 50 students a week. Ginka Vogel was one of them in the Fall of 1953, and they were married in Spring
of 1954.
In 1956 they opened the first potter's studio in Door County which has come to be known as the Potter's Wheel. |
