“Art theories have no meaning for me; beauty has. This is all my philosophy.”
—Lucie Rie
Ornament was typically minimal in Lucie Rie’s work but she did not abhor indulgences of color, graphic decoration, and gilded drips of manganese glaze. These touches were, instead, chosen with extreme restraint. This restraint, however, only makes each color and line more purposeful and striking. Rie preferred to apply her glazes while the clay was still in its bone-dry state, a technique known as raw-glazing, allowing the glaze and clay body to mature together during a single high-temperature firing. Vessels were left out until they were leather-hard rather than biscuit fired. Then they were returned to the wheel to be glazed. This technique required skill, as the glaze is applied with a large brush while the pot spins slowly, making it challenging to achieve an even coat. Rie overcame this by adjusting the glaze to a thick consistency and adding gum arabic to improve application. This strategy of thickening glaze in turn creates a sumptuousness which is best seen in her running glazes which run and drip down the side of the vessel only to be frozen and hardened in the firing process.
This choice to glaze on the wheel created an unmistakable horizontal bias in her work, with broad bands of glaze enhancing the vessel’s form. Rie’s glazes were often kept simple, relying on color and texture rather than intricate designs, but their effects were complex. Brushed glazes, compared to the smoothness of dipped or poured glazes—a technique commonly favored by other potters, allow for subtle variations, giving each surface depth and texture from the glaze alone. The present vase demonstrates Rie’s love for drama the striking indigo and turquoise bleeding effects of the subtle inlaid motif which encircles the neck touching against the feathered and running manganese bands.
