150 years separate Théodore Deck and Claire Lindner. Yet they are now meeting at the Théodore Deck Museum in Guebwiller (Alsace), where until 3 September 2023 their ceramics will look at each other, respond to each other, contradict each other and perhaps even come together in the evocation of nature, which has been a source of inspiration for them both, albeit in different ways.
Born in 1823, Théodore Deck is now a permanent fixture at museums – particularly at the museum in Guebwiller – having met with international acclaim by bringing ingenious innovations in technique and colour to both his art and his era, with even the Universal Exhibitions shining a spotlight on his work. Claire Lindner, on the other hand, is a contemporary artist and ceramist based in the Corbières region who – despite working with clay from a young age in her parents’ studio – only felt its gravitational pull later, while studying at the École supérieure des arts décoratifs in Strasbourg.
Living forms
“Letting both her hands and the material guide [her]”, she has invented her own manipulation and technique. “I work with slabs of clay that I stretch from the inside out, like pizza dough. When they’ve been stretched, they keep the imprints of their metamorphosis.” Imitating nature as it appeared to her in a Canadian forest in 2015, she enjoys assembling and interweaving coil-shaped modular elements, which are gradually manipulated into a more comprehensive, “misshapen and soft [form] that can unlock the keys to our imagination.” Her work is also characterised by her colour gradients, applied with a spray gun in multiple coats, “which contribute to the form’s movement, accompanying it rather than covering it.” The notion of ‘living form’ clearly permeates her work. “In the connection to nature that I’m looking for, I try to create a symbolic form of everything that constitutes and surrounds us: vegetation, the mineral world, the body. This means not putting the body at the forefront of my work and instead mixing everything together to create a sense of connectedness between each aspect, without any hierarchies.”
In tribute to Théodore Deck, whose 200th birthday we are celebrating this year, Claire Lindner is taking over the Guebwiller museum with sculptures from her residency at the European Institute of Ceramic Arts (IEA) that create a form of dialogue with the artist. “I liked the idea of nature being part of the landscape and possessing a decorative beauty, which was the fashion in the 19th century. I thought it would be interesting to view this through a contemporary lens, to show it in a different, more disturbing and fragile way.” This is reflected by Terramovere, a large-scale clay installation created in situ just before the opening, “so that the form is still soft and fresh: at this stage, the material can be considered damp flesh that you can almost breathe in and which, over the course of the exhibition, will dry out, become lighter, create a colour gradient, decay, break and crack.”
Taking flight
The Corbières-based artist has also reappropriated the bird motif, present in Deck’s landscapes, by exploring flying, akin to 19th century photographer Étienne-Jules Mare who focused on the decomposition of movement. “I worked with woodcocks’ wings, which I printed in slabs of soft clay to preserve their imprint, then distorted and assembled to give them more volume, with the idea of rising and falling forms.”
Two eras, two different ways of handling antipodean material. During her residency, she tried to get past this disconnect between time and aesthetics by experimenting with a new approach. This involved having a progression of textures on the same piece – from the matte, powdery aspect of the enamel in her work to the smooth and shiny, almost glazed aspect inherent in Deck’s work, “as if the stages of metamorphoses present in the objects were rediscovered on the surface of the piece.” In some of the sculptures, she took this process one step further by incorporating pieces of glass – like enamel in its purest state – produced at the CERFAV*.
Aside from this exhibition, Claire Lindner was honoured in New York this spring when she made the shortlist for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2023. She met this recognition of her know-how with a sense of both humility and satisfaction, given that – although she has come a long way in 15 years in terms of her understanding of ceramic material – she is far from completing her research on the subject. “My work is gaining in confidence. I’m getting to know myself better. But the road is endless, it just goes on.”
*European Centre for Research and Training in Glassmaking in Vannes-le-Châtel (54)
