b'8888 KLYTIE PATE (19122010)fairy penguin pottery statue,incised Klytie Pate,23cm highKlytie Pate was born in Melbourne in 1912. Discerning an artistic talent in Klytie, her aunt, Christian Waller, directed her early career and arranged for her to study modelling with sculptor and potter, Ola Cohn, and for her to attend classes in 1932 at the National Gallery School in Melbourne. She was later to study figure drawing and applied design at the School of Applied Art under Napier Waller, George Allen and Gladys Kelly.Pates early work was strongly influenced by the spiritualism and abstracted Art Deco vocabulary of Christian Waller. Although she often used otherwise undecorated forms, she is generally associated with carved and pierced pots. Her motifs, although sometimes abstract, geometric or architectural, are more often nature-inspiredanimals, birds, plants and flowers. She also drew inspiration from her travels abroad and from the theatre.In 1947, Pate and Allan Lowe were the first contemporary Australian potters to be represented in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.The Pate pieces were greatly treasured and enjoyed pride of place in the Morgan collection.[Adapted from the essay Klytie Pate, Potter and Educator by Terence Lane in Australian Art Pottery 1900 - 1950 at page 291.]$3,0005,00088'