Plain Clay

The spontaneous and naïve designs of Maarten Baas’ Clay series express artistic vulnerability. Each piece is handmade of industrial clay, covering a steel frame. Arachnid shaky legs of tables and lamps, a chair that barely seems to be able to hold the weight of the owner. Visible handprints make this series utterly personal.

Where the original Clay pieces are finished with a coloured lacquer, the Groninger Museum (NL) commissioned Baas to develop a new version of Clay for their museum restaurant. This new version of the Clay series needed to better withstand daily use. For this new technique called Plain Clay, Baas pigmented the clay at the very start of the production process, instead of painting the frames at the end. Therefore, the material appears more matt and reveals the artist’s fingerprint even better.