by Gary Gach

Original article at Asian Art.com

In conjunction with Masters of Bamboo, the Asian Art Museum held a reception featuring one work each from ten artists considered to be the next generation of this truly amazing art form. This extended display was then kept for a month beyond the week of the reception (February 15–March 18, 2007) before the pieces returned to their owners. More important were the artists themselves, who were present at the event.

At the opening reception, artist Honda Syoryu, a disciple of Kadota Niko, addressed the large reception. He attested to the fact that the bamboo medium takes decades to master, noting that at age 55, he’s “finally about to graduate from of the realm of the younger generation of bamboo artists.”

He echoed the sentiment of his colleagues when he spoke of how the new Western market affords the bamboo artist the freedom to try things they haven’t had the courage to try before. “For me,” he said, “who spent most of my career making traditional flower baskets and offering trays, the encounter with this new American audience has allowed me to make a quantum leap in my art into the realm of free sculpture using the motifs of nature, time and space, and the universe.” Absent from mention was the reality that patronage in Japan is dwindling along with the space of a contemporary home, with seldom room for the luxury of a flower basket anymore.

A little later, we spoke with Nakatomi Hajime, a student of Sensei Honda. Although he looked the youngest, he was dressed in the most traditional Japanese style. Beside him, under glass, was The Sound of the Moon, an ovoid orb with a vertical cylinder down the center. On first glance, it looked very traditional next to many of the free-form creations on display, yet just a breath of modernity changed everything. The strands weren’t plaited right flush against each other, but rather had ample widths of space between them: thus, both the ovoid sphere and the concave cylinder could be viewed simultaneously. He compared the effect to jazz, whose appreciation consists in both the parts and their interrelation to form a whole.

We asked if he’d had an opportunity to see the work of Ruth Asawa while he was here. (Her major retrospective at the De Young had just closed before Masters of Bamboo opened.) His face lit up. It seems the artists all visited the De Young Museum and had their horizons widened to see her work and the catalog from her show. Mr. Nakatomi found her work wonderful and noted the similarities between her work in wire and theirs in bamboo. It was like a bolt of lightning, he recalled, to consider what a trail-blazer she was. He says he now lists her among his favorite artists, along with Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Buckminster Fuller.

Speaking of great people, without question the man of the hour was Mr. Lloyd Cotsen, who invested his attention to this relatively obscure art form when its future was tenuous at best. For this special occasion, he offered Asianart.com the following statement.

“For better or worse, it seems to this outside observer of the art of the Japanese basket maker, the emphasis on a tradition is loosening, thus allowing a flowering of individual artistic interpretation, direction, and innovation. However the discipline and links of these new artists to the old ways are secured by the mentorship of their teachers and by the power of their basket-making heritage. . . . This ensures a continuation of the Japanese basket-making tradition, albeit with the recognition that the future ultimately depends on the creativity of succeeding generations.

“Mentors understand and protect the tradition. The next generation, represented in this exhibition, seeks to bend, if not break, that tradition. These opposing aims create a wonderful dynamic that can be seen in Japanese society as a whole and here in the microcosm of bamboo basket development.”

Also on hand at the event was Koichiro Okada, who worked closely with Asian Art Museum curator Melissa M. Rinne on the Masters of Bamboo exhibition, as liaison, teacher, and collaborator. He told us he agreed with Mr. Cotsen’s notion of a loosening of emphasis on traditional response. He finds it’s true now even in the most conservative school of bamboo art in Japan.

Mr. Okada notes there are two major professional artists organizations to which bamboo artists belong. “One group,” Mr. Oakada points out, “is called Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) and the other is Nihon Kogeikai (Japan Craft Artists Association). While Nitten artists emphases ‘sculptural beauty,’ Nihon Kogeikai artists work in a framework of tradition and craftsmanship. The notion of a creative edge has been very important to Niiten artists, but it is also carries weight to the Nihon Kogeikai artists, especially in recent years.

“Two of the leading bamboo artists in the Nihon Kogeikai are Hayakawa Shokosai V and Katsushiro Soho. Both are Living National Treasures and both favor innovation and imagination in their works. Some of the artists who submit ‘old-style’ baskets recently have been severely criticized by these leaders, and as Mr. Cotsen points out, Hayakawa and Katsushiro nominated two of the raising young stars from the Niiten world for the ‘Next Generation’ event.”

A week later, we caught up with curator Melissa Rinne, and learned that the artists were not only able to absorb a diversity of art as well as meet collectors and lovers of this art form, but also to network amongst themselves. “The event,” she said, “brought together most of the important younger artists in this field for the first time. Though they all knew one another by name and by work, this was the first time that most of them had really spent an extended amount of time talking with their peers about their life work. There were very serious conversations about the future of their art forms, and the artists agreed among themselves to mount an exhibition together, which would be a wonderful breaking through from the traditional divisions within the bamboo artist community, based on the two major artist associations — which have fairly different emphases.”

Last but not least, also present and speaking at the event was Rob Coffland, owner of TAI Gallery, where Mr Okada works. Ten years ago, Lloyd Cotsen had asked him to look for baskets. He recalls he made mistakes at first — buying baskets simply because he liked them. Now he’s not only the expert in the field, but his gallery is in a unique situation of being The One to permanently feature this art form. Thanks to his good eye, sensitivity to the culture, nurturing of good working relations, and selfless devotion, visitors, collectors, artists, and the art itself are in good hands.

We might emphasize that the diverse bonds Mr. Coffland has formed with individual artists are as important as works exhibited or sold. As Lloyd Cotsen points out, “An art is nothing without its artists, for they are the ones responsible for the culture, tradition, and the creativity their work reflects.”

Original article at Asian Art Newspaper.com

THE MUSEUM OF Fine Arts in Boston has recently received a transformative gift of over 90 pieces spanning the late 20th and 21st centuries, given by collectors Stanley and Mary Ann Snider from their Japanese art. This continues the tradition of collectors of Japanese art making donations to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), that have included such gifts from Ernest Fenollosa and William Sturgis Bigelow. Stanley and Mary Ann Snider represent a new generation of Bostonians who want to ensure that visitors to the museum will understand the vibrancy of Japanese art and culture in our own time by viewing their collection of ceramic and bamboo art.

This exhibition, curated using their recent gift,  highlights the craftsmanship and highly creative sculptural forms of Japanese decorative arts. Among the first exhibitions to present contemporary ceramics alongside baskets, Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo offers an in-depth look at 60 objects created by dozens of leading artists based in Japan. Many of the works are on view for the first time and are enhanced by a selection of contemporary textiles, screens and paper panels.

During the late 19th century and into the 20th century, ceramics and bamboo arts in Japan evolved from traditional crafts into modern art forms, as those who produced them evolved from craftspeople into artists. As modernisation continued, a new generation of artists began to assume creative control over the works they produced, creating unique pieces with their own hands, based on their own ideas. Creativity – rather than mere technical excellence – became the standard for an artist’s work.  In ‘basket with bamboo-root handle’ (1930s), for example, Maeda Chikubosai demonstrates an early example of bamboo art as a form of personal expression.

In the years following World War II, avant-garde clay artists in Japan declared that their work no longer had to take the form of traditional vessels. Many of these artists maintained respect for ancient methods and aesthetics, while embracing the non-functionality of their ceramics. The earliest generation of contemporary ceramic artists live through a major turning point in the history of the medium: a shift in creative control from kiln foreman or craftsman to artist, and the ensuing evolution of ceramics from commercial products to works of art. Beginning in the early 20th century, leading ceramicists, while still influenced by traditional approaches, explored the medium as a means of self-expression and gave shape to their own aesthetic sensibilities by working directly with the materials. Akiyama Yo intentionally exploited deformations that would be considered defects in commercial products with Untitled MV-1019 (2010), which purposely employs cracks in the clay to provide a weathered effect. Fukami Sueharu, who brought Japanese ceramic arts to global attention, also adopted inventive approaches to traditional techniques. His The Moment (Shun) (1998) is a keenly edged abstract work of porcelain that slices through space like a knife.

Recently, international praise has centred on pioneering female ceramists. Until the post-war era, virtually no women in Japan were ceramic artists; men feared that the presence of women would pollute their kilns. Koike Shoko was one of the first female graduates of the ceramic department at Tokyo National University of the Arts. Her shell-shaped vessels, such as Shell 95 (1995), were first thrown on a wheel and then sculpted from the clay of the Shigaraki region. Whereas traditional Shigaraki vessels are left unglazed, Koike applies layers of white slip (liquefied clay) to the surface. Sakurai Yasuko, also among the first women to work with clay on a university campus, plays with forms that make the viewer aware of light and shadow in Vertical Flower (2007).

In contrast to ceramic art, contemporary bamboo art continues to be dominated by artists who were trained through apprenticeships, often in regions where bamboo work has traditionally flourished. During the last century, however, the medium has seen great change. Since the 1950s, Japanese bamboo artists have created highly original pieces that transcend utilitarian use and represent independent works of sculpture. Contemporary bamboo art continues to be dominated by artists trained in the facilities or apprenticeships in regions where bamboo work has traditionally flourished, including Oita, Osaka, Shizuoka, Tochigi, and Niigata. Most of the artists whose works are collected (in this exhibition) were trained in or are active in these regions. Despite this adherence to tradition, the medium has greatly evolved and diversified over the last century. As bamboo art focuses not on the application of decoration, but on fashioning the form of the object itself, it calls forth more radical originality from artists seeking innovation.  In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, the making of Chinese-style baskets flourished, primarily in Osaka, against a background of sencha (tea) ceremony culture. Soon, as with ceramics and other crafts, those who made bamboo works began to gain recognition as artists rather than merely as craftsmen.

By the 1920s, bamboo artists had begun to show their work in public exhibitions such as the Japan Art Exhibition (Nitten), and from the 1950s at the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition, which demanded originality from participants.

A novelty introduced by artists working in the style where curving forms predominate is the appearance of quasi-architectural structures, composed of straight lines. This is illustrated in Yako Hodo’s piece in the exhibition – Late Autumn. The more daring and experimental work is done by artists exhibiting in shows such as the Japan Art Exhibition and the Japan Contemporary Arts and Crafts Exhibition, along with other artists who are not affiliated with any arts and crafts organisations. Among the artists in this category are Torii Ippo, Honma Hideaki, Watanabe Chiaki, Yamaguchi Ryuun, Shono Tokuzo, Honda Shoryu, Morigami Jin, and Mimura Chikuho. These artists often generate a unique and lyrical sense of movement in their work through the spatial properties of braided structures that make dynamic use of the material’s pliability and elasticity.

In Fire (2011), Yamaguchi Ryuun displays his creative approach by leaving the ends of strips of bamboo unbound, allowing them to spread out and create a voluminous form. Morigami Jin produces shapes that are possible only in bamboo sculpture, his Red Flame (2007) is vessel-like but is transformed into an expression of lines and silhouette in brilliant colours. The development of bamboo works as art – freed entirely from functional use as vessels or baskets – can also be seen in works by Fujitsuka Shosei. Fujitsuka’s pieces span a range from useful objects such as lampshades to the minimalist, elegant flames of Fire (mentioned above). Tori Ippo’s undulating works are far from traditional, functional wares. His Flight (2003), features complex, contrasting bands of twisting bamboo that arc and command the space around them. Another novelty introduced by contemporary bamboo artists, where curving forms predominate, is the appearance of quasi-architectural structures composed of straight lines, such as Yako Hodo’s Late Autumn (2004).

Until 8 September, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, www.mfa.org.

When I first learned that bamboo artist Honda Syoryu studied under Kadota Niko, I was puzzled. Kadota Niko, a prominent member of the Iwao lineage, worked in the traditional style of the Beppu region and was known for his imposing, extremely intricate jar-shaped flower baskets. Honda is recognized primarily as a sculptor, and even the vessels he made in his early career had an artistic style and sensitivity that felt modern, innovative and foreign to Beppu. I wondered if Honda was rebelling against his teacher and the regional tradition he had been taught. However, I soon began to feel the spirit of Kadota Niko in his work. I no longer see Honda’s sculptures as a rejection of tradition but an embrace and evolution of a great bamboo art legacy.

Much of Honda’s work has drawn upon two very basic plaiting techniques – twining and twill plaiting. These age-old techniques have been used in Beppu to make baskets and boxes for over a century. Honda uses these ordinary techniques to extraordinary effect. By controlling the width and thickness of his twined bamboo strips and altering the spacing between each row, Honda transforms what would be a simple cylinder into the dynamic, undulating shapes of his signature “Dance” series. In his “Rhythm” series, he rolls up a length of flat twill plaiting into a tube, which he bends and ties into an elegant, looping composition. Though these techniques have been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years, no one ever used them in the ways Honda does.

In his second solo exhibition at TAI Modern, Honda is introducing two brand-new series. In the “Spring” series, a synthesis of two earlier bodies of work, Honda bundles and coils airy twined tubes into free-form shapes. Also new is the “Ring” series. Other than Honda, who else could create something fresh out of the bullseye plaiting (rinko-ami) technique which has been used as the base of baskets for centuries!

Honda uses some of the most common techniques passed down from early basket makers, yet he is able to adapt these traditional techniques to create completely original sculptural forms. In this, Honda is an embodiment of a core tenet of Japan’s craft art – the marriage of continuity and change.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TAI Modern at Asia Week New York
Realization of Form: Masterworks of Japanese Bamboo Art
March 15^th– 24^th, 2018

Exhibiting at Jason Jacques Gallery
29 East 73rd St, Apt. 1
New York, NY  10021

NEW YORK, NEW YORK—TAI Modern is pleased to announce its participation in Asia Week New York 2018. The exhibition, Realization of Form: Masterworks of Japanese Bamboo Art, will be on view March 15-23 at Jason Jacques Gallery, 29 East 73rd St, Apt. 1, New York, NY. An opening party will take place Friday, March 16^th, 6-9 pm.

For TAI Modern’s first year participating in Asia Week, the gallery will present both historic and contemporary works which exemplify the dialogue that occurs between the artist and the bamboo. “Bamboo art is a material specific art,” Director of Japanese Art Koichi Okada explains. “This exhibition explores the relationship between artists and their chosen medium. Monozukuriis a term often used by Japanese artists and craftsmen. It can be described as ‘the process of creating an object in harmony with the medium through pride of craftmanship.’”

Veteran artists often speak of the necessity of listening to the bamboo. One might wait years to find the right bamboo for a basket or the right form for a particular piece of bamboo. Artist Tanioka Aiko described her bond with the material, saying “This medium gives me joy and challenges me…Bamboo is both delicate and powerful. It is not a tame material to shape according to my desire. It gives me joy when my will and the will of the bamboo fit together nicely.”

Among the more than 30 bamboo artists in the exhibition are noteworthies such as 101-year old Monden Kogyoku, Living National Treasure Fujinuma Noboru, and cult-favorite Tanioka Shigeo, each of whom excel at expressing the unique character of bamboo. These artists are in several major American museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Asian Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

TAI Modern has been the premier gallery for contemporary Japanese bamboo art for over 20 years, and currently represents over 35 artists in this medium. During Asia Week New York, TAI Modern’s exhibition at Jason Jacques Gallery will be available for viewing Monday through Saturday from 10am-6pm or by appointment.

For more information, please contact Arianna Borgeson at arianna@taimodern.comor (505) 984-1387.