Michael Powolny was born in Judenburg (Austria-Hungary then, Austria today) in 1871 to a potter, and served his apprenticeship in his father's workshop until it was sold by his mother after his father's death.
Michael Powolny 1871-1954
He attended the Technical College for Pottery in Znaim in today's Czech Republic, and then the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. Subsequently, in 1906, he founded with Bernard Loeffler 'Wiener Keramik', a ceramics manufacturer which sold its products to the Wiener Werkstaette.
Visiting card of Wiener Keramik (left) and typical black-and-white ceramic bowl by Wiener Keramik (right)
The company merged with 'Gmundner Keramik' in 1913, by which time Powolny was teaching at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, later becoming Professor of Ceramics there until his retirement in 1936. In 1936 he joined the Viennese Secession, rejoining in 1946 after the end of WWII.
Although primarily a successful academic, Powolny continued to design art deco works of art throughout his career. A modern reproduction of his (lost) tiling work for the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna is shown below, together with two of his most widely admired creations, his celebrated putti.
Modern reproduction of the Cabaret Fledermaus (left) and putti, two of the four seasons (right)
Powolny designed eight opal and stripes vases for the 1914 Cologne exhibition of the Austrian Werkbund. Five of them are shown below:
Subsequently, Loetz used these shapes and many others not designed by Powolny to create a wide range of glass in dozens of different colour combinations. This 'Tango Glass' - a term apparently created by Loetz - has a single base colour, then adornments (stripes, rims, handles, bases, etc) in a second, starkly contrasting colour.
Loetz's success with Tango Glass inspired other Bohemian glasshouses to make their own versions, most of inferior quality, with an even wider range of adornments - tadpoles, flowers, spiral threading, portraits, landscapes, third and fourth colours, and much more besides. Even today, Bohemian glasshouses produce cheap and brightly coloured Tango-style glass for the tourist trade. Examples of non-Loetz Tango-style glass are shown below.
Non-Loetz Tango-style glass from the Czech Republic
The 2009 Herman Spaink book 'Loetz Tango Glass' includes many (very good) photos of glass which the author wrongly attributes to Powolny and/or Loetz. This has caused huge confusion in the art glass world; indeed, this book is probably the single biggest source of Loetz misattributions. Just today I searched ebay.com for 'loetz tango'. I had 71 hits, many including Powolny in the description, and much more than half were not made by Loetz and almost all had no connection whatsoever to Powolny. Several of those that do look like Loetz products in the photos must be approached with care – Vienna's many souvenir shops are full of passable modern reproductions of the genuine Powolny designs for Loetz, and these sometimes find their way to eBay or to auctions described as Loetz originals.
Modern reproduction of a Powolny design
At the end of WWI Lobmeyr commissioned Loetz to manufacture several new Powolny designs. Most of these were in crystal, blue or green translucent glass, some with white stripes in the Venetian tradition, some with multiple looped handles. But there were also a couple of Tango designs, one (PN III-931) being made in dozens of different colour combinations.
This marked the end of Powolny's collaboration with Loetz. Subsequently, as a teacher and sculptor at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, he made important contributions to the 20th Century revival of ceramic art. Powolny died in Vienna in 1954.