Birck, Aage

First name: 
Aage
Initials: 
A.
Surname: 
Birck
Year of birth: 
1941
Birthplace: 
Copenhagen
Country of birth: 
Denmark
Working period: 
1965
CV: 

Aage Birck is born in Copenhagen in 1941. Aage and the German Heidi Guthmann Birck met in a workshop in a small town east of Paris in 1963. The ceramist Aage and sculptor Heidi run a workshop together since 1965. The couple married in 1966. 1970 they moved to Ålkær in Jutland. Main activity as ceramist and sculptor. 1980 - 1985 Member of the exhibition group Multi Mud together with Karen Bennicke, Lene Regius, Heidi Guthmann Birck and Gunnar Palander. 1986 Moves to Haderslev. House, studio and showroom. 1987 - 1998 Guest teacher at the School of Arts and Crafts in Kolding. Since 1993 works as tutor. 1988 Artist in residence: International Salt Glaze Symposium. International Ceramic Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary. 1990 Second workshop with wood-fired salt-firing kiln in Halk. 1993 Member of the founding group of Danmarks Keramikmuseum Grimmerhus in Middelfart. 1994 curator of the exhibition "Unikat - New Ceramics from Denmark" at Keramion, Frechen. 2001 Danish curator for the Ceramic Triennale in Karpfenberg, Austria. 2002 Artist in residence: International Ceramic Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary. 2005 and 2008 Jury member International Triennial of Silicate Arts, International Ceramic Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary.

Aage Birck is an award-winning ceramist. He has participated in many exhibitions at home and abroad, e.g. in Germany, Hungary, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Images: Aage Birck, portrait (source Archiv Keramikmuseet Grimmerhus Middelfahrt DK); Aage Birck with some of his works (source website artist); lidded urn, former collection J.W.N. van Achterbergh (source Modernity Sweden); salt glaze geometric object with block cutter (source website artist).

 

 

 

 

Work of the artist: 

Aage Birck combines classical ceramic forms with angular geometric protrusions and salt glaze finishes. He begins with simple vessel forms, which he then contorts into sharp-edged planes and surfaces that reflect a mid-century modernist sensibility. In some works, he follows a readymade thread, crafting artworks that echo the tools in his studio; in others, he affixes iron objects to the ceramics, which introduce a rigidity and solidity to the fragile medium. Salt glazes unify Birck’s body of work; the black-speckled surfaces create visual texture and the appearance of natural aging (text source Artsy).