Billy-Goat 

Bart van der Leck created this tile, "Billy-Goat", using glazed ceramic. It's a simple, yet striking image with a limited palette of yellow, grey, black, blue and red. The making of ceramic tiles is an interesting blend of handcraft and industrial process. Clay is shaped, glazed, and then fired at high temperatures. The crackled surface on this tile, known as crazing, is a common characteristic of glazed ceramics, and arises because of the different rates at which the clay and glaze shrink during cooling. Van der Leck's simplification of the goat's form into geometric shapes reflects the influence of the De Stijl movement, of which he was a founding member. By embracing these industrial materials and processes, van der Leck blurred the lines between art, craft, and design. This challenges our traditional notions about the value and status of different art forms, and the labor involved in their creation.