Zeljko Kujundzic pottery chawan
Zeljko Kujundzic, (Yugoslavia 1920 - Osoyoos 2003) chawan pottery bowl, green and burnt orange BC pottery signed ZK.
This handsome little bowl is in excellent condition, tucks into the palm, with an unglazed foot and a gently speckled interior.
2.5” high x 4.25” wide.
Zeljko Kujundzic was of Turkish and Hungarian descent, he was the fifth generation of artists, printmakers, sculptors and ceramicists. He was educated on the Dalmatian coast and studied art in Venice Italy. With the eventual Nazi occupation of Hungary, Kujundzic became active in a student resistance cell. As a result of his activities he was forced to serve in Nazi labour camps. He escaped only to become a prisoner of the Soviet Red Army. Eventually he would escape his captors once again by going underwater and then trekking back a thousand miles through the Ukraine and Romania to post-war Yugoslavia.
After the war Zeljko received a Master’s degree of Fine Arts degree from the University of Budapest. His artistic media now included sculpture, clay, painting, printmaking, metal, stained glass & weaving. Disillusioned by the restraints put on artists under the Tito regime, he defected to the West in 1946. After time in a Displaced Persons camp in Austria, he emigrated to Scotland, living and working there for the following
He and his family moved to Cranbrook, BC in 1958, and in 1959 to Nelson and started teaching at the Kootenay School of Art. In 1964 he moved to Kelowna and established the Art Centre, a gallery, studio and teaching facility. He subsequently worked as an art teacher, and participated in many activities including the arts council, summer arts festival, and the contemporary Okanagan artists group.
In 1968 he moved to Pennsylvania to become a professor for Pennsylvania State University.
In 1976 Kujundzic invented and perfected a working solar kiln. This was a project he worked on for over 20 years after being inspired by solar generators in France and Colombia. With a bronze concave mirror 52" in diameter, a coffee can lined with Fiberfax (a ceramic fibre used to insulate the nose cone of spacecrafts) and an electric motor, the kiln was capable of generating temperatures of 2800 degrees and could fire a piece up to 8" in size.
In 1982 Zeljko retired as Professor Emeritus from the Penn State University when he returned to the Okanagan Valley. He passed away in 2003 in Osoyoos, BC.
We recommend reading this online biography, Torn Canvas (same title as Kujundzic’s autobiography), from which we cribbed the above biography.
Zeljko Kujundzic, (Yugoslavia 1920 - Osoyoos 2003) chawan pottery bowl, green and burnt orange BC pottery signed ZK.
This handsome little bowl is in excellent condition, tucks into the palm, with an unglazed foot and a gently speckled interior.
2.5” high x 4.25” wide.
Zeljko Kujundzic was of Turkish and Hungarian descent, he was the fifth generation of artists, printmakers, sculptors and ceramicists. He was educated on the Dalmatian coast and studied art in Venice Italy. With the eventual Nazi occupation of Hungary, Kujundzic became active in a student resistance cell. As a result of his activities he was forced to serve in Nazi labour camps. He escaped only to become a prisoner of the Soviet Red Army. Eventually he would escape his captors once again by going underwater and then trekking back a thousand miles through the Ukraine and Romania to post-war Yugoslavia.
After the war Zeljko received a Master’s degree of Fine Arts degree from the University of Budapest. His artistic media now included sculpture, clay, painting, printmaking, metal, stained glass & weaving. Disillusioned by the restraints put on artists under the Tito regime, he defected to the West in 1946. After time in a Displaced Persons camp in Austria, he emigrated to Scotland, living and working there for the following
He and his family moved to Cranbrook, BC in 1958, and in 1959 to Nelson and started teaching at the Kootenay School of Art. In 1964 he moved to Kelowna and established the Art Centre, a gallery, studio and teaching facility. He subsequently worked as an art teacher, and participated in many activities including the arts council, summer arts festival, and the contemporary Okanagan artists group.
In 1968 he moved to Pennsylvania to become a professor for Pennsylvania State University.
In 1976 Kujundzic invented and perfected a working solar kiln. This was a project he worked on for over 20 years after being inspired by solar generators in France and Colombia. With a bronze concave mirror 52" in diameter, a coffee can lined with Fiberfax (a ceramic fibre used to insulate the nose cone of spacecrafts) and an electric motor, the kiln was capable of generating temperatures of 2800 degrees and could fire a piece up to 8" in size.
In 1982 Zeljko retired as Professor Emeritus from the Penn State University when he returned to the Okanagan Valley. He passed away in 2003 in Osoyoos, BC.
We recommend reading this online biography, Torn Canvas (same title as Kujundzic’s autobiography), from which we cribbed the above biography.
Zeljko Kujundzic, (Yugoslavia 1920 - Osoyoos 2003) chawan pottery bowl, green and burnt orange BC pottery signed ZK.
This handsome little bowl is in excellent condition, tucks into the palm, with an unglazed foot and a gently speckled interior.
2.5” high x 4.25” wide.
Zeljko Kujundzic was of Turkish and Hungarian descent, he was the fifth generation of artists, printmakers, sculptors and ceramicists. He was educated on the Dalmatian coast and studied art in Venice Italy. With the eventual Nazi occupation of Hungary, Kujundzic became active in a student resistance cell. As a result of his activities he was forced to serve in Nazi labour camps. He escaped only to become a prisoner of the Soviet Red Army. Eventually he would escape his captors once again by going underwater and then trekking back a thousand miles through the Ukraine and Romania to post-war Yugoslavia.
After the war Zeljko received a Master’s degree of Fine Arts degree from the University of Budapest. His artistic media now included sculpture, clay, painting, printmaking, metal, stained glass & weaving. Disillusioned by the restraints put on artists under the Tito regime, he defected to the West in 1946. After time in a Displaced Persons camp in Austria, he emigrated to Scotland, living and working there for the following
He and his family moved to Cranbrook, BC in 1958, and in 1959 to Nelson and started teaching at the Kootenay School of Art. In 1964 he moved to Kelowna and established the Art Centre, a gallery, studio and teaching facility. He subsequently worked as an art teacher, and participated in many activities including the arts council, summer arts festival, and the contemporary Okanagan artists group.
In 1968 he moved to Pennsylvania to become a professor for Pennsylvania State University.
In 1976 Kujundzic invented and perfected a working solar kiln. This was a project he worked on for over 20 years after being inspired by solar generators in France and Colombia. With a bronze concave mirror 52" in diameter, a coffee can lined with Fiberfax (a ceramic fibre used to insulate the nose cone of spacecrafts) and an electric motor, the kiln was capable of generating temperatures of 2800 degrees and could fire a piece up to 8" in size.
In 1982 Zeljko retired as Professor Emeritus from the Penn State University when he returned to the Okanagan Valley. He passed away in 2003 in Osoyoos, BC.
We recommend reading this online biography, Torn Canvas (same title as Kujundzic’s autobiography), from which we cribbed the above biography.