For over a decade, Roseline Delisle (1952-2003) dreamed of making large-scale ceramic sculpture. She first realized her goal in an exhibition of six figurative sculptures in the fall of 1996. Her recent work presents a vision of purity and perfection, a world of balance and symmetry. Their stability and strength complement the precision of the slender, seemingly fragile figures. Bold and graphic, the tall and totemic sculptures are deeply rooted in early twentieth century abstraction. Delisle’s ability to marry these polarities is her triumph.
Although most of her early work was made in the demanding medium of fired porcelain, Delisle turned to an earthenware clay body to realize her ambitious figurative pieces. The years of experience with porcelain proved valuable, as she developed a means of stacking sections of interlocking cylinders to create larger forms. The first six sculptures were made of eight, ten or eleven different elements, fused together in a nearly seamless line. With foot, body, waist and head, these hollow vessels have a human presence. The artist is in control of her elements—line, form, volume and color—yet is able to find a fertile ground for exploration.
Many viewers and writers have noted Roseline’s success in the unification of opposites. It is true that her vertical forms are striped with horizontal bands, the sharp profiles are softened by a smooth, rich surface, and the nearly mechanical precision is offset by their obvious figurative references. Technical and formal concerns are one means of access; another is the presence and historical awareness in these new large works.
Delisle cites as seminal influences the Suprematist drawings of Malevich, the Constructivist theatre and ballet designs of Oskar Schlemmer, and the line drawings of Picasso. Her primary influences in the world of ceramics have been Lucie Rie (delicacy of form, use of line) and John Mason (monumentality, minimalism). Despite her awareness of these historical sources and her relentless reductivist sensibility, Roseline allows some interplay between intellect and intuition.
Delisle has begun to group her figures together in pairs and small families. A pair of sculptures, side by side, is quickly recognized as a couple. Delisle delights in pointing out the anatomical signifiers—female and male—and in emphasizing the interplay of negative space between the two. When she adds a third, smaller figure, the “family” resembles her own—mother, father and daughter. Thus, her abstracted figures become immediate and personal.
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