Polia Pillin, born Polia Sunockin, came to Chicago from Poland in 1924 to work an industrial job that allowed her to support her family overseas. She began to take art classes at the Jewish People's art institute in the evenings and dreamed of supporting herself as an artist.
In 1938 she married William Pillin, who had fled persecution in Ukraine with his family and settled in Chicago, and they lived in New Mexico. After the birth of their first child they returned to Chicago, where she had her first show of paintings at the Chicago Art Institute. She became fascinated with clay, and in 1946 she took a six-week course in pottery'her only formal training. She set up a studio in her kitchen, complete with a wheel and electric kiln, and soon her innovative works were in high demand. By the 1960s, the Pillins, now collaborating on throwing pots and developing glazes, were selling pottery faster than they could produce it.
Polia Pillin's pieces are instantly recognizable. Her technique involved painting on pieces with colored clays while they were still wet, and then double-firing using a transparent glaze which produced a high gloss finish. Her pieces, both paintings and pots, feature whimsical figures of people and animals. Her style was informed both by her Eastern European heritage and by her surroundings in New Mexico.
Awards: Los Angeles County Art Institute, 1949; Syracuse Museum of Fine Art, 1950; California State Fair, 1951.
Exhibited: Oakland Art Gallery; Cincinnati Art Museum; New Mexico Museum, Santa Fe; San Francisco Art Association, 1939; Art Institute of Chicago, 1947-48; San Francisco Museum of Art 1948; Wichita Art Association, 1947-49, 1951; Denver Art Museum, 1952; Oakland Art Museum, 1950; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1948, 1950, 1952; Los Angeles County Art Institute, 1949; Syracuse Museum of Fine Art, 1950; California State Fair, 1951; Landau Gallery, 1952; The Willow, New York, 1948-56.
Works held: Dallas Museum of Fine Art, Long Beach Municipal Art Gallery, Syracuse Museum of Fine Art, Los Angeles Art Institute.
