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.”

“Spring Tide,” a basket of bamboo and lacquer, by Fujinuma Noboru.

What comes to mind with bamboo? Groves of tall, graceful, shushing, clonking stems? Eco-friendly building material? If you’re into art, you might think of delicate paintings of bamboo or meticulously plaited baskets.

As one of Japan’s most abundant natural resources, bamboo has been a popular material and subject for centuries, although the training and expertise involved has limited its practitioners. Today, according to some accounts, there are fewer than 100 professional bamboo artists.

In the hands of the 17 artists in “Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art,” on view at Bellevue Arts Museum, the grass becomes embedded in clay, nailed to a wall, or twisted and steamed and manipulated into a range of forms that break the boundaries of tradition.

It’s best to keep traditional bamboo basketry in mind if you visit “Modern Twist,” in order to appreciate how radical these forms are. My criticism of the show is that it presupposes a familiarity with the ideal against which these artists react. It would have been nice to have a small introductory display with examples of conventional basket forms — maybe in different stages of development as they’re typically woven from the bottom up.

Tradition is an enormously important backdrop for these artists. The apprenticeship and training system follows strict protocols and can take years; according to some experts, 10 years can be spent just learning the basic techniques of cutting, dying and plaiting.

To get some sense of the history and conventions of bamboo art, I suggest starting with the gallery to your left as you come up the stairs from the lobby. It’s filled with bamboo pieces that more directly refer to the traditional uses of bamboo art — as containers made for tea ceremonies or flower arranging. But even here, it becomes clear that the artists are taking liberties. Some play with technique, weaving from the top down, for example. Some play with form, plaiting their functional vase structures into evocative forms.

My favorite is “Warrior” by Tanabe Shochiku III, who has created a functional flower basket in the shape of the top portion of a samurai’s suit of armor. The container for holding flowers is right in the neck hole, supplanting the mighty warrior’s head. The ideas of tradition and lineage resonate for Tanabe. He comes from a long line of bamboo artists and is the son of the well-respected artist Tanabe Chikuunasai III, whose work is also in the exhibition.

In other galleries, artists leave function and tradition even further behind. At about 4 feet high, “Circle” by Nagakura Ken’ichi is a massive presence. Nagakura first created a basket, then sluiced clay over it and wiped down areas to reveal strips of shiny bamboo. These shards radiate inward toward the void of the circle, creating the impression of movement and contradicting the density of the piece.

It’s as if the standard cylindrical basket form has been upended, punched through, and petrified, both distorting and preserving history, while creating possibilities of expression. And there’s still a nod to functionality with a small vase, barely visible, embedded in the center.

Works by Uematsu Chikuyu are overtly sculptural. His wall-hanging works — a rare form for bamboo art — are large-scale and nonfunctional (except, of course, as they function as works of art). But, even here, the structures could be seen as more abstracted containers of tradition. Uematsu fills his work with symbolic references to common Japanese artistic motifs: enlightenment, nature, music, patterns.

Curated by Andreas Marks, of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture (in Hanford, Calif.), “Modern Twist” is one of several exhibitions and books of the last decade that establish bamboo art as a prestigious contemporary art form. Two artists in the exhibition, Katsushiro Soho and Fujinuma Noboru, have been named Living National Treasures by the Japanese government.

The show also reflects well on BAM’s continuing, thoughtful practice of curating or selecting art, craft, and design exhibitions that allow us to reflect on the fluid intersections of art and craft, form and function, and tradition and innovation. Or we can simply be duly impressed by marvelous objects made with remarkable skill.