Annemarie Davidson

ANNEMARIE DAVIDSON (1920-2012)

Annemarie Davidson was a German- American copper enamelist best known for her free form modernist enamels reflecting the California modernist movement of the 1950-60's.

Annemarie was originally from Berlin and studio both at New York University and Columbia University where she received her master's degree in economics. In 1942 she married Norman Davidson, a pioneering microbiologist who subsequently became a professor at Caltech in Pasadena California. While her husband was studying at Harvard, Annemarie studied under noted enamelist Doris Hall in Cambridge. Upon returning to California, she studied with noted African American enamel artist Curtis Tann. She was active in Southern California from 1957 on and was selected to exhibit in several pioneering shows at Pasadena Art Museum. Her works are characterized by brightly colored sgraffito incised patterns set with "jewels" of glass fused to the surfaces. Her work is most often seen on platters, boxes and various "functional" objects. She was quoted as saying her approach was to be in keeping with the designer-craftsman aesthetic. As she explains in a 1962 interview: “My philosophy of work is simple: I try to create something colorful and decorative in order to make small objects, necessary in the home, beautiful.”