The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Figure of The Water (Das Wasser) from the Female Heads (Frauenkopf) Series

c. 1924–25
maker

Bimini Werkstätten

(Austrian, Vienna, 1923–1955)
designer

Dina Kuhn

(Austrian, 1891–1963)
Austria, Vienna
earthenware
Overall: 36.9 x 19.7 x 18.5 cm (14 1/2 x 7 3/4 x 7 5/16 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1929.438
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This figure was likely purchased from an exhibition of works that had been displayed at the 1925 world's fair in Paris.

Description

Conceived as part of a series of allegorical female heads, The Water (Das Wasser) connects ideas of spirituality, feminism, and humanism in an age when female artists and designers were being taken seriously in the commercial artistic community as never before. This figure by Viennese ceramist Dina Kuhn, one of only four known of the same subject, was modeled shortly after Kuhn took up her position as head of ceramic design at the Bimini workshop in Vienna, known for its glass production. The figure was displayed at the 1925 world's fair in Paris and subsequently toured the United States in an exhibition of curated works from that fair. Such strong depictions of women had a profound impact on young sculptors and designers working in clay in America, among them Viktor Schreckengost, whose early style closely followed that of Kuhn and the artistic community in Vienna.
  • Coffin, Sarah D., and Stephen Harrison. The Jazz Age: American style in the 1920s. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2017. Reproduced: fig. 317, p. 260; Mentioned: p. 258
  • The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY (April 7-August 20, 2017); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30, 2017-January 14, 2018).
    Circa 1930. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 12-October 31, 1983).
    John Marin Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 17, 1955-January 1, 1956); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (March 1-October 13, 1956); The Phillips Collection (March 1-October 13, 1956); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (March 1-October 13, 1956); Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (March 1-October 13, 1956); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (March 1-October 13, 1956).
    Rouault: Retrospective Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 28-March 15, 1953).
    The Sea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 23-October 25, 1950).
  • {{cite web|title=Figure of The Water (Das Wasser) from the Female Heads (Frauenkopf) Series|url=false|author=Bimini Werkstätten, Dina Kuhn|year=c. 1924–25|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.438