Overview
Clarice Cliff was one of the most influential ceramic artists of the 20th century. Born in 1899 in the Staffordshire Potteries, she began working life as a factory girl. By 1928, she had launched her own range of pottery, known as "Bizarre." A dazzling feast of color, it blazed a trail through the homes of interwar Britain. But if Cliff's rise from apprentice gilder to art director was remarkable—all the more so for being a woman—it was not without its tensions: for years she conducted a secret relationship with her married boss. Fusing art, design, and industry and vividly evoking the texture of women's lives between the wars, this is a compelling portrait of the complex, talented woman whose work is, for many, the epitome of Art Deco.
Synopsis
Clarice Cliff was one of the most influential ceramic artists of the 20th century. Born in 1899 in the Staffordshire Potteries, she began working life as a factory girl. By 1928, she had launched her own range of pottery, known as "Bizarre." A dazzling feast of color, it blazed a trail through the homes of interwar Britain. But if Cliff's rise from apprentice gilder to art director was remarkable—all the more so for being a woman—it was not without its tensions: for years she conducted a secret relationship with her married boss. Fusing art, design, and industry and vividly evoking the texture of women's lives between the wars, this is a compelling portrait of the complex, talented woman whose work is, for many, the epitome of Art Deco.