UND Pottery Collection
Artist Bio
Julia Edna Mattson was born in Kensington, Minnesota on October 28th, 1893. After moving to North Dakota in the early 1910s, Mattson attended University High School in Grand Forks, graduating in 1920. She enrolled at the University of North Dakota in 1920 and started working as a part-time student assistant in the Ceramics department. She graduated from UND in 1924 with a BA in Art and Education and immediately got a job as an instructor at UND. Mattson was responsible for “kiln-stacking”. She would carefully load all the kilns with pieces that needed firing and remove them when done. Mattson would also make new molds, pottery for sale and exhibition, convention favors, and special orders. In an astounding feat of work, ethic, and talent, it has been calculated that Mattson made over 4,400 models from 1927-1938. She produced pieces including medallions, souvenir items, and special commissions. She also began to develop a distinct style in the 1930s, implementing many western motifs: depicting coyote, bison, wheat, covered wagon, oxcart, and Native American travois (frame structure used for transportation consisting of two joined poles and pulled by a horse or dog). Mattson even taught her own specialty class focused on “building” despite its less professional reputation at which Cable “scoffed at...as a way of making pottery”. In 1933, three of her mosaic plaques were showcased at the Chicago World’s Fair. In the late 1930s, Mattson returned to school yet again, studying drawing and painting, this time in Taos, New Mexico. She likely interacted with many famous artists of the time who frequently gathered in Taos in the 1930s, such as Georgia O’Keefe and Ansel Adams. In 1950, Mattson was promoted from instructor to Assistant Professor at UND. The 1950s were also an exciting decade for Mattson due to her earning an MA from UND in 1951 for Educational Psychology and Ceramics. In response to the changing times, she began implementing post-war influence, modernistic trends, abstract decoration, colorful patterns, and asymmetry of form in her work. In 1957 she was honored by the American Artists Professional League and in 1963, her final year at UND, a vase of hers was selected to be presented to John F. Kennedy to commemorate his visit to North Dakota. When Mattson retired in 1963, the famous cobalt blue seal, that had been in use since the early years of the Ceramics department, was retired. Mattson’s retirement marked the end of the Babcock-Cable-Mattson era of the UND Ceramics department. Her most well-known pieces are applauded for their designs, such as the Cowboy “Why Not, Minot?” vases and her many works depicting Native American imagery. Mattson moved to California after her retirement and died on December 16th, 1967 in Los Angeles.
Sources: Newspapers, Ancestry
Barr, Margaret Libby, Donald Miller, and Robert Barr. University of North Dakota Pottery: The Cable Years. Margaret Libby Barr, Donald Miller, and Robert Barr, 1977.
Forster, Ken. UND Pottery: A History and Comparative Study. Marlin Media Publishing, 2004.
Preview
Size
8.75 x 5.25
Date of Work
ca. 1960
Identification #
C MTT 124-0557
Description
Julia Mattson graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1924 with a B.A.
in art and education. An exceptional student of Margaret Kelly Cable’s, she was appointed Instructor in Ceramics upon graduation. During that time she created thousands of pieces of pottery, taught, and gave lectures and demonstrations both regionally and nationally. Mattson received a Master’s Degree in educational psychology and ceramics from UND in 1951 and retired from the University in 1963.
Mattson’s work during the post-war years reflected the influence of the decorative, modernistic, and abstract trends of the time. The abstract fish motif on the vase is reflective of that era.
Included in Fables, Insults, and Reverence: The Animals of UND Art Collections Exhibition at the UND Art Collections Gallery in the Empire Arts Center
Art Descriptors
green (color); fish; incising; vases; vessels (containers); scale pattern; ceramics (objects)
UND Seal
No
Cable Seal
No
Other Seals and Stamps
None
Identifying Markings
JM etched.
Condition
Good
Status
Stored: UND Pottery Collection Box 10
Location
UND Art Collections Repository
Recommended Citation
Mattson, Julia, "C MTT 124-0557, Brown vase with incised fish design" (2017). UND Pottery Collection. 1052.
https://commons.und.edu/pottery/1052
Rights
Images are provided for educational purposes only and may not be reproduced for commercial use. Images may be protected by artist copyright. A credit line is required to be used for any public non-commercial educational purpose. The credit line must include, “Image courtesy of the University of North Dakota.”
Keywords
Pottery