Klytie Pate: Moulded by Passion
This long-treasured private collection of works by Klytie Pate (1912 - 2010) has been passed down through generations, representing the full breadth and variety of Pate's oeuvre. Many of these pieces were gifted from the artist or acquired at the time of creation.
Born Clytie Winifred Wingfield Sclater, her parents’ separation led to a reshuffling of the family unit, with the young Klytie fostered into the guardianship of her aunt and uncle, Christian and Napier Waller. The pair were formidable role models and both highly driven artists who forged in their young protege a strong sense of self-efficacy that would bolster her throughout her career.
Portrait of Klytie Pate.
Those formative years were enveloped in the world of her aunt’s esoteric phantasm. In one memorable pronouncement, Christian declared that Klytie was a reincarnated Egyptian princess, and she suggested she change her name to ‘K’ for numerological reasons. In her early teens, she modelled for Christian Waller's illustrations of Alice in Wonderland, published by Witcombe & Tombes in 1924. Themes from her childhood continued to influence her artistic output, and her inherited spiritual and mythological provocations would be manifested in clay.
With encouragement from her Aunt and Uncle, Klytie enrolled at the Working Men’s College (now RMIT) in 1933. She took to wheel throwing in 1935 with uncanny ease despite initial dislike of the noisy environs, “I was a natural potter and had a feeling for the clay”, shortly after she accepted a position as cadet ceramic teacher for the following year.1
Lot 58, A collection of Exhibition Catalogues including an original draft illustration designed by Bill Pate, circa 1941, $200-400
She worked relentlessly throughout her teaching career, begrudging the ‘rich old ducks’ she taught, pulling her away from precious hours that could be devoted to her art practice. Eventually, by 1945, Pate was in such high demand that she was free to resign from teaching and dedicate herself full-time to her pottery practice.
Klytie’s husband, Bill Pate, played a significant role in her artistic journey. A talented artist in his own right, Bill met Klytie while studying under Napier Waller. Their match was set in the stars, as Klytie fondly recalled, when she spotted Bill, ‘He didn’t stand a chance.’ Bill's support was instrumental in Klytie’s career. He set aside his arts practice to advance a career in commercial design, all the while supporting Klytie with small contributions, such as designing linocuts for exhibition invitations, building displays, and maintaining the kiln during overnight firings. This collection includes an example of Bill’s original draft exhibition invitations (Lot 58). Bill was described as a reserved, intelligent gentleman, the grounding backbone of the relationship ‘Klytie was the Diva, and Bill was the one who made it all possible’.2
Lot 19, KLYTIE PATE (1912 - 2010) A glazed and pierced vase with giraffe motif, $1,800-2,500
For a career spanning over 60 years, she exhibited yearly, proving ‘a consistency of purpose, a precision and elegance of form and an unrelenting desire to express a highly personalised response to natural phenomena. We are also made aware of a meticulous approach to technique and a tireless experimentation with glazing and its chromatic potential.’ 3 No matter the theme, colour, or shape, Klyties' employment of glazes and handling of clay were always executed with intention, utilising glazing materials with the necessary thriftiness required when supplies or funds were limited. Some glazes included the use of discarded glass panels from the Waller mosaic studio; her famed turquoise blue, so synonymous with her work that it was coined “Klytie blue”, involved a compound of tin and copper oxides. On a trip to the Grand Canyon around the 1970s, Klytie scavenged a pocket full of sand, which, when thrown into the glaze, resulted in a magic stream of shining golden flecks4 (Lot 20).
Critics would later recognise Klytie for her instrumental role in the emergence of Australian studio pottery. Her love of mythology and ancient Egypt complemented the recurring animism represented throughout tessellating filigree designs. ‘Whatever it was that took her fancy was quite at home dancing around the belly of a pot.’5 Her imagery intuitively captures the genteel elegance of nature, such as a giraffe's gracefully tilting head reaching for fresh shoots (Lot 19), or the fish with arched spine expressing boundless joie de vivre (Lot 32). A rarely seen wood engraving in the collection titled ‘Fauna’ (Lot 51) bears reference to the Roman rustic goddess, deity of the countryside and the counterpart of Pan. Returning to the theme throughout her life, she was undoubtedly inspired by the ballet L’après-midi d’un faune, which was performed in Melbourne by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1947. Whether domestic or wild, exotic or mythical, nature prevailed as a constant source of inspiration and delight - her pottery eternally celebrating the beauty and diversity of the natural world. The amalgamation of Pate’s influences, which criss-crossed Art Deco, Pre-Raphaelite, and Art Nouveau styles, produced a captivating body of work that has remained elegantly immemorial.
- Sarah Garrecht
View a private collection of Klytie Pate pottery
-
1 Christopher Sanders, Klytie Pate, A Lifetime Commitment, Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 32, 1998, p. 50
2 William Tycross, Catalogue of Pottery of Klytie Pate, The Klytie Pate Treasury, The Tallis Foundation, 2015, p.22
3 Geoffrey Edwards, Klytie Pate: Klytie Pate Ceramics: 25 May-3 July 1983, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1983, p.7
4 Catherine Moffatt, The Beleura collection of Klytie Pate pottery, Australiana August 2017, p. 12
5 William Tycross, Catalogue of Pottery of Klytie Pate, The Klytie Pate Treasury, The Tallis Foundation, 2015, p.22
Header Image: Lot 32, KLYTIE PATE (1912 - 2010) A glazed and moulded double fish plaque, $400-600