Paulus Berensohn (–2017)

Paulus Berensohn was born Paul Bernsohn in Brooklyn, New York on May 14, 1933. He studied dance at the Juilliard School in New York and later Bennington College in Vermont. He also took classes with Merce Cunningham and was used as a demonstrator by Martha Graham when she taught classes. In the show more early 1950s, he visited the Land commune, a community of artists, and decided to become a potter. He started teaching pottery and journal-making workshops at the Penland School of Crafts in the late 1960s and continued to do so for nearly 40 years. His book, Finding One's Way with Clay, was published in 1972. By the late 1970s, he turned to tapestries as a form of therapy after an illness left him too exhausted to make pottery. He died of a stroke on June 15, 2017 at the age of 84. (Bowker Author Biography) show less