Clara Tice

American (1888-1973)

Born in Elmira, New York, avant-garde artist and illustrator Clara Tice studied under Robert Henri. Tice participated in the 1910 exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, in a number of solo shows in Manhattan at Bruno’s Garret, Anderson Galleries and Schwartz Galleries, as well as in an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work was also featured in numerous magazines including Vanity Fair, Rogue, Cartoons Magazine, The Quill, Greenwich Village and Bruno’s Weekly.

Known as Dada’s “It” girl, the “Queen of Greenwich Village” and a member of the Arensberg Circle, Tice’s career blossomed overnight when, in 1915, Anthony Comstock, retired captain of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, raided an exhibition of her work at Polly’s Restaurant on Washington Place in Greenwich Village.  The whole affair caught the attention of Frank Crowninshield, editor of Vanity Fair, who published photographs of Tice’s nudes and announced a mock trial that was going to be held in her defense at Bruno’s Garret on Washington Square South. “She will be tried,” the announcement read, “and therefore acquitted of the charges of having committed unspeakable, black atrocities on white paper, abusing slender bodies of girls, cats, peacocks and butterflies.” Later Tice would say that Comstock was her best press agent.

Tice held a great fondness for animals and, in 1940, published a children’s book, ABC Dogs.