Image courtesy of Nola Anderson. Photo: Rob Little.

Klaus Moje

Artist Klaus Moje (1936–2016) trained as an apprentice glass cutter and grinder in his family’s firm in Hamburg, Germany, before earning a master’s certificate from Hadamar Glass School in 1959. Moje established a joint studio with his first wife, Isgard Moje-Wohlgemuth, in Hamburg in 1961. They worked on architectural window commissions before developing a range of lustreware glass vessels. Moje produced his first kiln-formed glass vessels in 1975. Kiln forming quickly became Moje’s signature technique, which he continued to use for the rest of his life. After moving to Australia in 1982 with his partner and later second wife, ceramicist Brigitte Enders, Moje founded the glass program at the Canberra School of Art (later the Australian National University School of Art and Design). He led the program for 10 years before setting up a joint studio with Enders in Wapengo, New South Wales. Moje’s glass is known internationally for its vibrant colors and abstract geometric designs.

Works

Bowl, 1980. Glass canes, slumped, fused, ground to matte finish. H: 7.1 cm, W: 32.4 cm, D: 24.8 cm. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York (82.3.33).

Untitled 3-1988-#15, 1988. Made at Canberra School of Art; Studio. Kiln-formed, grinding. H: 52.8 cm, D: 28.2 cm. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Gift of the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family (2007.6.8).

He, 1989. Mold-blown glass, transparent enamels and luster. H: 52.8 cm, D: 28.2 cm. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Gift of the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family (2007.3.89).

Klaus Moje talks with Paul Hollister about color in his work, purposely using a limited number of molds, and reworking a new piece in a 1982 interview at Pilchuck.

Playing04:51 Transcript

Klaus Moje talks with Paul Hollister about color in his work, purposely using a limited number of molds, and reworking a new piece in a 1982 interview at Pilchuck. Interview with Klaus Moje by Paul Hollister, July 28, 1982. (Rakow title: Klaus Moje interview [sound recording] / with Paul M. Hollister, BIB ID: 168474). Clip length: 04:51.

Time stamp: 00:00
Clip 1: Klaus Moje talks with Paul Hollister about color in his work. Clip length: 02:20.

Paul Hollister (PH): Is that aventurine?

Klaus Moje (KM): That is aventurine—

PH: Green aventurine.

KM: Green aventurine, yeah.

PH: Beautiful.

KM: Yeah.

PH: Does this—

KM: This opens new possibilities to me—I would cut these through and I cut it crosswise—

PH: Uh-huh.

KM: —and after I have—

PH: Slices and—

KM: Sli— [inaudible] I put that together again, fuse them again—

PH: Make a plaid—

KM: Yeah.

PH: in the other direction.

KM: Yeah, yeah.

PH: They’re—is this the same kind of colors—

KM: No.

PH: —or are you buying them from somebody else?

KM: No, this—no this is a glass that is made in America that is Bullseye Glass which is made in Portland and—

PH: Portland, Oregon?

KM: —Portland, Oregon, and they have a color range of about fifty glasses which should be compatible, and you can really get compatible colors there if you buy the tested glass, so you can—

PH: The ones that are proven.

KM: Yeah, yeah.

PH: They’re not as pretty as your colors though—

KM: They—

PH: —your colors are more beautiful.

KM: Yeah, see if you see the colors are not cullet then they look awful too.

PH: Yeah.

KM: So after—after cutting they will show up.

PH: Yeah they look better.

KM: That’s—that’s very important.

PH: But this color—the—your color sense is wonderful, this color, and that color is absolutely beautiful and that color, and this. That—that satin—I love that.

KM: And after—after I know more about the palette of colors I get from—I can get from Bullseye I think there are many possibilities two of which are not proved up till now.

PH: That’s terrific that one. That is so simple, it’s like sea through the porthole and a ship. The sea and the sky.

KM: Yeah.

PH: Beautiful.

Time stamp: 02:23
Clip 2: Klaus Moje discusses using a limited number of molds in his work. Clip length: 01:19.

Klaus Moje (KM): I tried to be very, very simple and work with about five or six molds. And, okay I sat on different flats, different [inaudible] whichever, which were smaller or broader, but mainly I worked with about five molds. This mold, this mold is the same than this mold. This was a—this was a temp I made last year which was suppose—

Paul Hollister (PH): That’s interesting, yeah.

KM: But which also didn’t satisfy.

PH: Yeah. But it would be nice to see that polished down or flattened down, ground.

KM: Yeah [inaudible] kind of polish, it was an overlay of clear glass. [PH coughs]  And in this case, I cut it down, small pieces of these colors instead [inaudible] in this way, the layers from this in that way and in this case in the vertical way.

PH: Yeah, yeah.

Time stamp: 03:45
Clip 3: Klaus Moje talks about reworking an unsuccessful piece. Clip length: 01:05.

Klaus Moje (KM): I’m—I’m not really happy with this piece here and—

Paul Hollister (PH): Oh, you mean the little patchy places?

KM: No, no I’m not—I’m not happy with the outer circle here. I have to review that. [inaudible]

PH: Could you—could you take a sheet that you’ve got made up and [inaudible] the different ways so that would go this way if I—the outline—the outline might be just like this might be the outline, but within that it would go a little bit this way and a little bit that way and then the lines go straight across or the pattern goes straight across—straight up and down, but you get a—

KM: —Yeah. If I went to remove the mold and then the lines will—will move with me.

PH: Yeah, a casual mold like that.

KM: —like his mold.

PH: Yeah, yeah. [William] Morris’s molds there where they’re not symmetrical or anything.

Permalink

Bibliography

Writings by Paul Hollister Bibliography

“Klaus Moje.” American Craft 44, no. 6 (December 1984/January 1985): 18–22.

Full issue: https://digital.craftcouncil.org/digital/collection/p15785coll2/id/13720/rec/33

American Craft Council, Digital File Vol44No06_Dec1984

PDF