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Tiles with scene of people, sheep, and flora
Tiles with scene of people, sheep, and flora

Tiles with scene of people, sheep, and flora

Artist (American, born Russia, 1905–2003)
Date1953
MediumHand-painted and glazed ceramic tiles, mounted to wooden coffee table
DimensionsOverall: 19 7/8 × 32 3/8 × 22 inches (50.5 × 82.2 × 55.9 cm);
Each tile: 6 1/8 × 6 1/8 inches (15.6 × 15.6 cm)
ClassificationsDecorative Arts
Credit LineGift of the artist
Terms
  • Decorative Arts
  • Furniture
  • Glazed ceramic
Object number87.031.007
Label CopyClara Seley—dancer, model, self-taught artist, and spouse of Jason Seley, Class of 1940—lived in Haiti with her husband in the late 1940s. In those years, Jason taught sculpture at Le Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince—a newly established workshop and gallery for Haitian artists. Jason would later return to Cornell as a professor of art and eventually become dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. All of the Haitian works in the exhibition The Best Way to Prepare Bananas: Fruits of the Soul from the Permanent Collection were given to the Johnson Museum by Clara. The collection grew from her close association with prominent administrators, teachers, and students at the Centre. Some contemporary scholars criticize the interventionist mode of the school, describing its early leaders as “mostly white, American impresarios.” Clara and Jason Seley, however, drew inspiration from the environs, techniques, materials, artists and ideas they encountered there. Regarding her own career, Clara wrote in 1986: Self-taught, my creative career began in 1946 during our three years in Haiti. Here the vital atmosphere of the Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince became a primary source of inspiration. ("The Best Way to Prepare Bananas: Fruits of the Soul from the Permanent Collection," curated by Matt Conway and presented at the Johnson Museum June 24-August 13, 2017)
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