Take the mystery out of art history
 
Deike - "Glouchester, Massachusetts" Modern watercolor painting of the houses of Gloucester, Massachusetts
 
 

Clara Louise Deike • American: 1881-1964

Gloucester, Massachusetts • Watercolor - Wove Paper 31” x 27.5”

In 1912, eight years before women were even grated the right to vote, being a female artist in Cleveland wasn’t easy. Most artisic opportunities, outlets and organizations were only available to men. Clara L. Deike was one of the twenty-five women who changed everything. As the womens rights movement swirled around them, these women took matters into their own hands and launched the Women’s Art Club of Cleveland (WACC). The WACC, the first art organization in Cleveland to be composed entirely of women, had a dual, but simple goal – to learn and to teach. The group held it’s first exhibition in 1913, reached it’s pinnacle in 1930 with over 150 members, and was active for over 94 years. 

Before becoming a co-founder of this groundbreaking organization, Deike first discovered her passion for modern art. She was born in Detroit and was raised in Cleveland before attending the Chicago Art Institute, one of the leading art schools of the day. Returning to Cleveland, Deike enrolled at the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) where she studied under various artists, including Henry Keller, the first Ohio artist to gain distinction for his work as a watercolorist. Since there weren’t very many career opportunities for women in the world of fine arts, she began teaching art at Lakewood and Central High Schools. 

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However, her prim and proper teaching career couldn’t hold back her wanderlust and the allure of art. Deike spent her life traveling around the world, including Germany and Mexico, studying with modernist painters, including Hans Hoffman and Diego Rivera. 

Watercolors were just beginning to become popular, largely through the work of her mentor Henry Keller and other Cleveland School artists. Deike was there with them as part of the watercolor movement in Northeast Ohio where outdoor sketches became a noted genre. Her work was heavy in the modernist style and ranged from still lifes and landscapes to more abstract art using geometric shapes in her later years. While she was best known for her modern cubist style and still-life paintings, Deike experimented with other media including a series of woodcuts that she produced studying the craft in Germany. 

Deike never married – at the time, woman teachers lost their jobs if they did. She taught in Lakewood until her retirement in 1945 and split her time between her home studio in Lakewood and a summer home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. By the time she died at the ripe old age of 82, the Women’s Art Club had moved far beyond the cramped studio hidden among the Gates Mills trees. The work first started by Clara Deike and her friends ended up lasting almost a century and changed the face of art in Cleveland and beyond.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Margretta Bockius Wilson Fund 2006.1

 
 

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“While Deike was first and foremost a painter, she also dabbled in woodcutting which she learned while in Germany.”

2.
“She was a prim schoolteacher, but her bright use of color showed the heavy Fauve influence in her art. In French, Fauve means ‘Wild Beasts’. Hmmm.”

3.
“Deike walked the cusp of tradition and avant garde, she never married because women who taught school were not permitted to marry and lost their jobs but her art style was heavily modern and pushed many boundaries at the time.”

4.
“Clara Deike stands out as one of a handful of Cleveland artists who advanced beyond skillful technique to embrace a modern expression.”

 
 

Deike Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.