Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Why Clarice Cliff?

I added Clarice Cliff to my selection of ceramics a few years ago, taking the leap into a more expensive collectible.  There are several reasons for my decision:  Cliff was innovative and influential in the British ceramics industry, particularly in the 1930s, and those are attributes I admire.  There's the wow factor of the colors and shapes.  I like the poetry of her abstract names (why are the exploded floral shapes called "aurea", "viscaria" or "rhodanthe"?)  As I spent time in my earlier years struggling with the paint brush (batik T-shirts in my case) I greatly admire the fluidity, how her designs fill space.  Since there are variations in the placement of Cliff's designs on the objects that came out of her workshop depending which woman painted the piece a collector should evaluate how well the pattern relates to the shape.  I'm drawn to her bizarre florals right now, but might go after her earlier abstracts.

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