Product Description

Clarice Cliff was one of the most significant ceramic designers of the twentieth century. Her work - a 'gargantuan feast of colour' - is avidly collected and is for many the epitome of Art Deco. From the first, Clarice Cliff refused limitations. When she started work in the Potteries before the First World War, she was just another factory girl with a rolled-up pinny in her pocket and nothing much expected of her future. But by 1928, the year of the 'Flapper-vote', Clarice Cliff was launching 'Bizarre', a range of pottery as striking in appearance as in name, each piece stamped with her own signature. Women responded to the modern spirit of her work. 'Bizarre' was different at a time women hoped their lives could be different too. Clarice Cliff's tastes were magpie and eclectic: the latest European styles, ancient colourings and cottage-garden flowers were given a domestic context. The resulting look was bold, innovative and all the rage. As a working-class woman, Clarice Cliff's journey from apprentice gilder to art director was remarkable. But the life of the "brilliant girl artist", as the press romantically dubbed her, was not without its ironies.Though a thoroughly modern career woman, she lived for years with her parents in the terraced house she had grown up in; she became a public figure but conducted a clandestine relationship with her married boss; she designed for women at home, but rarely took a day off work. In her insightful and engrossing biography of this talented, ground-breaking woman, Lynn Knight also draws a vivid portrait of Britain between the wars, and in particular of the lives of women. Fusing art, design and industry, social history and biographical detail, it is a vibrant study of an Art Deco icon whose work continues to arouse strong and conflicting passions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #423225 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Review
'A thoughtful and fascinating biography, packed with fabulous pictures' Image 'Knight deftly uses Cliff's life and work as a way to view broader currents in Britain: increased social mobility, greater (though still limited) independence for women, and changes in domesticity towards smaller houses and fewer servants. At the centre is Cliff herself, a woman who inspired admiration as well as snobbish opprobrium for her vivid designs and ambitiousness' Financial Times 'Knight's evocative life of Clarice Cliff is both biography and social analysis and it reads like a very sophisticated folk tale [She] has done wonders in building up a picture of a woman of exceptional self-reliance and determination' Fiona MacCarthy, Guardian 'A fascinating read' Time Out

Time Out
‘A fascinating read’

Fiona MacCarthy, Guardian
‘Knight’s evocative life of Cliff is both biography and social analysis and it reads like a very sophisticated folk tale’

Customer Reviews

Possibly/Probably/Perhaps...
The author is to be congratulated for her ability to spin out a handful of facts into a full-blown book.

This biography is little more than an endless round of conjecture. Ms Cliff herself appears to have left little written record (No Diaries, Few Letters, etc.) and further appears to have been so intensely private that no one who knew her has anything insightful to contribute. So, instead, we get endless social history wrapped around what little factual record there is.

The Pottery Gazette is referenced ad nauseum - as if a trade rag is going to shed much light on the enigmatic Ms Cliff or her work.

Her long-term romantic involvement with her boss is introduced as a given but not supported or substantiated by any reference or commentary as to how or when or even why it started - it just "is". Why would the "handsome", "rich", "upper-crust" Colley Shorter have got together with his social inferior who was also, let's face it, no oil painting? That particular mystery is not only left unsolved but also unaddressed. And, given that said relationship was fundamental to her success, it is notable by it's absence.

Really, there might be enough here to warrant an interesting magazine article but a biography? I think not!

Devoured in one read
I was introduced to Clarice Cliff's work by this biography. It was a present but I found myself unable to put it down and read it in one session. She is a fascinating woman. I admire her tenacity and the book gives a little insight into why she was so impassioned. Overall, however, she is still a mystery. The good thing was this book led me to buy some academic ones on her pottery, which I'm pleased to say I now own three pieces of.

Clarice Cliff
This was purchased as a birthday gift and the recipient was highly delighted with it and looked forward to reading it. She thought the pictures in the book were really good.