In 1888 Clara Tice was born in Elmira, New York, roughly two hundred miles away from New York City, where she would spend the majority of her life. Tice was first introduced to the city at a young age, when her middle-class family moved from Elmira to Manhattan.<\/p>\n
Throughout her childhood, Tice was encouraged to be creative, experimental, and independent by her progressive parents and began studying painting under the guidance of Robert Henry in her late teens. Henri, one of the founders of the Ashcan School, embraced controversial subject matter in his own art and encouraged Tice to follow suit. Tice allowed her art to be influenced by Henri, while permitting her own unique style and subject matter, often consisting of awkwardly-posed nudes, to develop. Through Henry, Tice helped to initiate the first exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910. During the exhibition, Tice sold her art to viewers who celebrated her works\u2019 simple style and provocative subject matter. Other viewers, petitioning for the preservation of morality of New York City, openly admonished the unapologetically overt images Tice produced by paint and pen. Contrary to the desires of such viewers, who aimed to keep Tice\u2019s work out of the public eye, negative opinions concerning Tice\u2019s art attracted the attention of Modernist publications, which began to rapidly publish Tice\u2019s work and fuel her artistic career.<\/p>\n
It was during this time in Tice\u2019s life that she first came into contact with Modernist artists and writers, including Mina Loy. Tice most likely met Loy between the years 1915 and 1921, when both women were active participants in the Arsensberg circle. It is apparent that Tice and Loy collaborated and creatively influenced once another, as Tice\u2019s illustrations appear alongside Loy\u2019s published poems. Tice continued producing her trademark illustrations throughout the nineteen-twenties and became a renowned and easily recognizable public figure in Greenwich village. Tice\u2019s bohemian illustrations appeared on theater curtains and within Greenwich village shop-interiors. Tice continued producing art until her last major exhibition in 1934.<\/p>\n
Tice briefly moved to Connecticut in the late 1930\u2019s and illustrated children\u2019s books during the 1940\u2019s. Shortly thereafter, Tice returned to New York City and remained in Greenwich village until she became destitute and moved in with her sister in Queens. Here, Tice reflected on her life as an artist and began several drafts of her autobiography, which she was never able to publish. \u00a0Suffering from glaucoma and arthritis and unable to write or produce art throughout the 1950\u2019s and \u201860\u2019s, Tice died in Queens in 1973 at the age of eighty-five.<\/p>\n
Works Cited:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Little Thimble Theatre.\u201d\u00a0The Lotus Magazine<\/em>, Oct. 1915, pp. 47-48.\u00a0JSTOR<\/em>.\u201c<\/p>\n Clara Tice lights Guido Bruno Garret.\u201d\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, 11 May 1915, p. 8.\u00a0ProQuest<\/em>.<\/p>\n Guenter, Patricia. \u201cClara Tice Rediscovered.\u201d Clara Tice: A Dada<\/em> Woman<\/em>. Fwd. Anne M. Lampe. Ex. cat. Lancaster: Demuth Museum, 2007. 4-10.<\/p>\n Keller, Marie T., editor. \u201cClara Tice, \u201cQueen of Greenwich Village\u201d.\u201d\u00a0Women in Dada: Essays<\/em>\u00a0on Sex, Gender, and Identity<\/em>, edited by Naomi Sawelson-Gorse, The MIT Press, 1998, pp. 415-441.<\/p>\n Ross, Lauren. \u201cClara Tice (1888-1973).\u201d\u00a0Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York<\/em>, edited by\u00a0Francis M. Naumann and Beth Venn, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1996, p. 190.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"