Dean Schwarz

Dean Lester Schwarz (born 1938) is an American ceramic artist, painter, historian, writer, publisher, and teacher. He was also the co-founder of the South Bear School (1970–present) by which he imparted to students a tradition of functional studio pottery. In the late 1970s, he founded the South Bear Press.

Schwarz was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a city with historical links to Regionalist painter Grant Wood. The son of a welder, his initial interests were in athletics. As an undergraduate student at Iowa State Teachers College (now called the University of Northern Iowa), he developed an interest in ceramics, painting and other visual arts, and abruptly changed his major. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960, and a Master of Arts in 1961. In 1960, he married Geraldine Fromm, a writer and literature teacher, with whom he raised six children. In their years together, he and his wife have traveled extensively throughout the world and have often collaborated on books and other projects.

Since the 1960s, Schwarz has been primarily known as an innovative ceramic artist, whose output is prolific. His work is represented in numerous private collections, and in the holdings of museums and universities throughout the world, including, among many others, the Museum of Art and Culture (Wuhan, Hubei, China), University of Nottingham (Nottingham, England), Collection of King Olaf (Oslo, Norway), Pottery Museum (Mikawachi, Japan), Burg Giebichenstein (Halle, Germany) and the White House Collection (Washington, D.C.).

In recent years, after a back injury, Schwarz has had to restrict his activities in the creation of wheel-thrown pottery. The large pots that he now creates are the collaborative effort of himself and his son, Gunnar Schwarz, in which the latter does the wheel-throwing, while Dean Schwarz designs the pots’ surfaces and applies the glazes. In 2007, their work was featured in a large retrospective exhibition of Schwarz pottery (along with representative works by Marguerite Wildehain), titled Dean and Gunnar Schwarz: Pottery Form and Inherent Expression, at the Gallery of Art at the University of Northern Iowa (Schwarz’s alma mater).

SOURCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Schwarz (Oct 2025)