Claudia Olds Goldie

Contemporary Figurative Sculpture
by Hollis Walker

Many art exhibitions lack the stamp of the curator, so absent is the sense of a personal taste behind the objects on view. Often these shows appear dry and emotionally uninteresting. This emphatically was not the case with “Contemporary Figurative Sculpture,” which was curated by the Santa Fe collector Sanford (Sandy) Besser. His aim was twofold: to bring forward to ceramists who sculpt the figure and whose work he regards as “under-recognized,” and to share his perspective that in their facility of execution and aesthetics, these clay works are equal to outstanding figural work in any medium.

It must be noted that Besser owns pieces by these exhibiting artists, a roster that included familiar names and those less recognized. The 24 ceramics shown, all made over the last two years, are human or animal figures, sometimes the two juxtaposed; common to most are a quirky humor and sexual references, either open or covert.

Claudia Olds Goldie portrays mature women with candor. In A Weight Bearing Exercise, the figure wears gym gear and has lifted, with little effort, a barbell satirically bedecked with the accoutrements of the modern “superwoman”: cellular phone, computer keyboard, teddy bear, frying pan, dog bowl, paintbrush, books. Olympic Dust exposes a tired, plump swimmer wearing an old-fashioned swim cap. Goldie’s “girls” are whimsical but not a bit funny. While once we judged women primarily by their sexuality, the criterion has shifted, but is no less harsh, Goldie suggests. The haggard Olympian is the antithesis of the celebrated male athlete, who even in pudgy retirement is paid to tout cars or comment on televised sports events.

American Craft Magazine - Feb/Mar 2003

Contemporary Figurative Sculpture: Group Show
by Jon Carver

A small sample from the buffet of a delightfully inventive exhibition:

Claudia Olds Goldie’s Olympic Dust, presents the solidity and stillness and the weight of the clay, used to establish a realistically defeated presence. The artist’s attention to the subtle nuances of anatomy and her ability to capture the look of light on skin are impressive, but it is her figure’s sense of an inner life (that the Etruscan Apollo glibly moves towards but hasn’t found yet) that will be the highest achievement of Athens. Olds Goldie may not be taking home the gold, but she’s won something more valuable in her ability to coax pathos from the earth.

Santa Fe Clay - Dec 2002

New Bedford Show Review
by David B. Boyce

According to Mark Hruby, guest curator for the New England Sculptors Association Exhibition occupying both floors of the New Bedford Art Museum earlier this year, “Sculpture, more than any other art form, engages the viewer in a physical relation to the art. With sculpture, one is challenged by a changing perception of the work when it is seen from different angles. Some will find different viewpoints especially appealing.”

Founded in 1948, the New England Sculptors Association is the oldest and largest organization of sculptors in New England. All potential members must be ratified for acceptance through a peer jury process.

A sampling of the show’s highlights, which reflects a purely subjective perspective, includes four works by Claudia Olds Goldie, exhib­ited in NBAM’s Heritage Gallery. Of her three ceramic pieces, a pedestal work from 1999 entitled Tsunami realistically depicts three full-bodied figures (two female and one male) wearing minimal attire and standing abreast. Each is also isolated in its own undelineated space; they do not interact formally, physically, or by inference, yet the negative spaces between the figures are intriguingly activated by their individual states of solitude. Ms. Goldie has a talent for realistic detail, and for surreal humor.

The Standard Times newspaper - Nov 24, 2002

The State of Clay...

was conducted by the Ceramics Guild of the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society’s biennial exhibition showcasing claywork produced by current or former Massachusetts residents. Juried by William Daley, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of the Arts, this year’s show featured 80 works by 60 artists. Daley was asked to select “a range of work that would represent a diversity of contemporary expression in clay.” As he reviewed 220 submissions, Daley responded most to work that realized its own intentions with wit and skill; skill about using materials, and wit about understanding the codes and traditions of usage.

Best of sculpture was presented to Claudia Olds Goldie, from Newton, Massachusetts, for her white, unglazed sculpture of a woman in a swim­suit holding overflowing supermarket bags while her legs project into a pool of water where fish casually swim around her lower limbs. The Daydream is part of a series of ceramic figurative sculptures on which Goldie has focused for several years. She does not work from models, yet she has realistically captured the posture of an older woman, with details of her features carefully defined. When asked the origin of these figures, she answers that they evolve from her visual memory where composite images of faces, expressions, and gestures are stored. “I can only expect that as you view my work, you will relate to it in a truly individual way, recognizing people, situations, and emotions that are familiar to your life and experiences.” Daley noted that The Daydream is “an evocative image, brilliantly exacted, both disquieting and comic in its surreal situation.”

Clay Times Magazine - Sept/Oct 2002

Juried Exhibition of Massachusetts Ceramics

“The State of Clay,” a biannual juried exhibition of ceramics by both current and former residents of Massachusetts, was presented recently at the Powers Gallery of the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society in Lexington, Massachusetts. From 220 entries, juror Bill Daley selected 79 works. Daley responded “most to work that realized its own intentions with wit and skill -- skill about using materials and wit about understanding the codes and traditions of usage. l tried to be responsive to intention by recognizing pieces where all the parts were designed to support a work’s major meaning.”

Daley also chose five award winners: best sculpture went to Newton, Massachusetts, artist Claudia Olds Goldie for The Daydream because “of its strong evocative image, which is brilliantly exacted. My take on its meanings is: a disquieting, absurd, mysterious, comic, surreal situation; one involving appetite, human amplitude and entrapment. It is all stated with incisive clay modeling without an armature in white unglazed clay.”

Ceramics Monthly - Sept 2002

Guilford Center's Ceramics 2001

The Guildford Handicraft Center in Guilford Connecticut recently presented "Ceramics 2001," a biennial competition open to ceramists in North America. From 200 entries by 174 artists, juror John Glick selected 73 works by 60 artists for exhibition. "I expected to see a very high degree of diversity in the group of entries Iview," he stated. "I was not disappointed."

When the time came to choose three prizewinners, Glick felt so strongly about many of the works that he selected six merit awards as well, and one of those awards was presented to Claudia Olds Goldie for her work.Tsunami.

Ceramics Monthly Magazine - Sept 2001

Olds Goldie Explores the Older Life
by Leon Nigrosh

Claudia Olds Goldie's sculptures do more than just grace their pedestals, they provide a glimpse into our golden years. Each of these modestly sized clay or bronze sculptures is infused with an uncanny sensibility which is at once timeless and timely. Olds Goldie presents images of older people who, though they are involved in simple, everyday activities, seem to represent a stage of life through which, with luck, we will all eventually pass.

Still a Contender is an excellent example of her remarkable capacity to create a mood, using only unglazed clay and her ability to manipulate this medium with great dexterity. We are presented with the figure of an older woman whose body has begun to succumb to gravity. She’s well past her “prime” but seems oblivious to this fact as she strikes a sensuous pose and gazes over her body, clad only in a bathing suit. Her expression seems one of personal reverie, as if hauling up memories of what her shape used to be; and yet there appears the unspoken thought that there’s still something in this old girl yet.

Olds Goldie claims that it is her interest in the “full-bodied simplicity of Pre­Columbian clay sculpture” which was “nurtured by a potter/sculptor mother” that has brought her this stage of her artistic development. But surely there must be something much more than this, something that comes from deep within the artist herself. How else can we explain the chord that is struck in our own minds when we view the tender gesture shared by two elderly grande dames in Ladies in Waiting? The absence of color draws our attention to the slightly exaggerated extremities, the slouching posture, and the individualized facial expressions that enhance the moment.

In each of the works on display, there is Everyman (or Everywoman) represented, in part because Olds Goldie’s figures appear to be modeled after real people. Yet her works all spring from her imagination, relying solely on inner feelings and the ability to observe her surroundings. To better appreciate how the artist can relate these nuances in clay, compare the correctly attired Mrs. Tucker Takes Tea, complete with pinkie extended, to the bag lady protectively hunched over a burger and fries in Fast Food.

In another telling vignette, a cast bronze man and woman sit back to back in The Ring, both slouched with weight and age, she in a housedress and he in undershirt and worn pants. At first it might appear to be a scene of despair and dejection, but the woman can be seen appraising her simple wedding ring. Perhaps she is also appraising her life with him and all they’ve gone through together. From the body language, we get the impression that the key word is “together.”

Grandmother’s Chair is executed in fusion bronze, a technique Olds Goldie should further exploit. Basically, fusion bronze is done by spraying hot bronze over a surface. In this case, a film of molten metal was applied directly to the fired clay, allowing the hard-metal surface to take on the texture of the hand-modeled clay. By hand-tinting portions of this proper-lady’s metallic figure, Olds Goldie is able to subtly highlight her clothing and hair to bring a believable persona to her subject.

The signature work in this exhibition, and the precursor to a new direction for Olds Goldie, is the clay and wood sculpture Imelda’s Dilemma. Named for the infamous Phillippina and her well-known shoe fetish, this large work, executed in Olds Goldie’s meticulous style, also contains a note of humor. We see a stately, grandmotherly figure faced with the problem of choosing the appropriate shoes for her extremely proper attire. To help her make this decision, the artist has made the inner portion of the pedestal into a revolving stand. Turn the wheel slowly to reveal three separate compartments, each with a pair of differently shod legs.

This is a rare opportunity to see a baker's dozen of Olds Goldie’s sculptures in one place. Separately, they command our attention with their warm, individual expression. Together, they capture universal human frailties and present them with a strong dose of wide-eyed honesty -- something that is becoming increasingly rare in the world of contemporary sculpture.

Worcester Phoenix - Feb 20-27, 1998

Claudia Olds Goldie - 617.969.0775 - claudia.olds.goldie@gmail.com