“. . . a compelling narrative of innovation.”
“From my perspective, the title refers to a distinct trend in Japanese ceramics, which occurred in the post-war years and profoundly influenced generations of ceramicists in Japan and around the world,” Pure Form curator Russell Kelty – Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia – tells me. “In the wake of the Second World War, young Avant-Garde ceramicists sought to create works, which could be appreciated as works of art, for their form, not necessarily for their utilitarian qualities, i.e., vases, tea bowls and vessels. They used the term objet to describe these new types of ceramics influenced by European modernism as well as artists like Isamu Noguchi and their in-depth understanding of East Asian ceramics.”
First conceived in 2016 and developed over the past six years, Pure Form includes 112 ceramics by sixty-five Japanese artists on loan from public and private collections across Australia – many works of which have never been on display in Australia before. “The impetus for the exhibition resulted from a series of visits to public institutions to view the diversity of post-war Japanese ceramics,” Kelty says. “Each collection was distinct and largely represented a particular decade or era, however had never been exhibited together. It was my assumption that together these collections would not only reveal the depth of Australian public collections but also a compelling narrative of innovation.”
Suzuki Osamu, born Kyoto 1926, died Kyoto 2001, Horses, c.1980, Kyoto, porcelain, overglaze, 32 x 21 x 8cm (green), 34 x 13 x 10cm (red). Collection of Raphy Star, © Suzuki Osamu. Photograph: Grant Hancock
In developing the exhibition, Kelty says it was also apparent that “while there had been numerous innovative exhibitions in Australia which explored the beauty of Japanese art up to the 1940s and of course Japanese contemporary art, few grappled with the profound shifts in the post-war years”. And herein lies the significance of the works on show, which have been described as Japan’s modern revolution in clay. It was a revolution for, as Kelty explains, form-only appreciation, “a radical idea in Japan, where form, function and design were considered inseparable until the mid-nineteenth century.”
Post-war Japan saw young ceramicists forming art collectives in Kansai’s urban centres (Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe), and part of the exhibition’s tribute to the ongoing influences of these pioneers includes space for contemporary artist work such as Tanaka Yū’s large-scale illusionistic clay objects, which are informed by the Japanese cloth wrapping practice of furoshiki. “It is often not recognised,” Kelty says, “but in the 1940s–50s the Kansai region, largely spared the bombing and Allied Occupation, was a place of great artistic innovation. Young, Avant-Garde artists sought cultural regeneration and to create a new type of art for a new nation. Every medium became a site for innovation, including ceramics, calligraphy, and ikebana.”
Tanaka Yū, born Ehime prefecture 1989, Yellow sculpture in the shape of a furoshiki, c.2018, Kyoto, stoneware, matte glaze, 46 x 54 x 38.5cm. Collection of Raphy Star. © the artist. Photograph: Hazuki Kani
Monumental sculptures by Akiyama Yō and Jun Kaneko and meditative ceramics by the late master Miyashita Zenji are certainly standouts, while the works of first-generation Japanese female makers like Tsuboi Asuka and Kishi Eiko, together with their successors, perhaps tell the strongest story of artistic revolution. “Japan has one of the oldest ceramic cultures in the world, and archaeological evidence suggests that women have played a role in it from the beginning,” Kelty explains. “However, in the past 500 years they were either prohibited from taking an active role in the creative process or played a secondary role to their male counterparts.”
“The restructuring of Japanese society that took place in the 1940s and ’50s enabled female ceramicists access to higher education in ceramics and the opportunity to assert creative agency. In many respects, they did not carry the baggage of their male counterparts, which worked in their favour as their works were often more sculptural, biomorphic, and abstract. As many critics and curators in Japan have noted, women injected a new vitality in Japanese ceramics in the post-war years, which continues today. Pure Form includes a gallery dedicated to female ceramicists.”
Matsutani Fumio, born Ehime prefecture 1975, Yellow (Ou), 2021, Ehime prefecture, stoneware, 43.2 x 52.3 x 28.2cm. Collection of Raphy Star. © the artist. Photograph: Grant Hancock
By including ceramic works from c.1948 to 2022, Pure Form demonstrates an accumulative post-war dynamism in Japan’s ceramics culture, charting an in-context narrative of the regenerative and transformative power of art in the wake of war. Resultant is a show of fine forms that is simple in viewer attraction yet profound in deeper resonances, including of international significance that, in this viewer’s eye, has especial relevance in the current, conflict-clouded historical moment. In Kelty’s words: “Pure Form will appeal to anyone who loves clay and hopefully change their perception of what is possible.”
Dr Joseph Brennan is an art critic, author and cultural scholar based in Far North Queensland.
Art Gallery of South Australia
21 May to 6 November 2022
Adelaide
