'Transcendent Clay / Kondo: A Century of Japanese Ceramic Art' at Lowe Art Museum/University of Miami
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Large White Porcelain Vessel, 2019. Glazed porcelain, 20 1/2 × 21 7/8 × 17 3/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
MIAMI - This exhibition celebrates the achievement of four members of the Kondo family: Kondo Yuzo (1902–1985); his sons Yutaka (1932–1983) and Hiroshi (1936–2012); and his grandson Takahiro (b. 1958). Based in Kyoto, Japan’s former capital city and a time- honored hub of cultural production, all four artists received intense early training in the use of the potter’s wheel. Both Yuzo and Hiroshi devoted their careers to creating wheel-thrown porcelain vessels decorated with lively painted motifs. Yutaka worked mostly in stoneware, creating pieces that reflect influences from Korean ceramics and Western abstract art. Over half the exhibition is devoted to work by Kondo Takahiro, the youngest member of the family. For much of his career he has rejected the potter’s wheel in favor of other techniques including hand building, molding, marbling, and casting. In 2004 he patented a distinctive glaze called ginteki (“silver mist”), which, composed of several precious metals, forms a mass of gleaming, mirror-like beads after being kiln fired.
Transcendent Clay features a wide range of work that explores the potential of vessels and abstract forms in combination with “Silver Mist,” including six tall Monoliths, made from blocks of porcelain and cast glass. The exhibition also highlights Takahiro’s most consequential contributions to contemporary ceramic art: eight Reflections and a single Reduction, portrait sculptures cast from the artist’s own head and body. These major statements resonate with Japan’s Buddhist heritage and express the artist’s response to natural and manmade disasters and other pressing issues of shared global concern.
This exhibition was organized by the Lowe Art Museum and guest curated by Joe Earle.
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), White Porcelain Jar, 1938. Glazed porcelain, 7 1/4 × 8 3/4 inches © Kondo Yuzo
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), Harvest Moon Cobalt-Blue Flower Vase, ca. 1955. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 7 7/8 × 7 1/4 in. © Kondo Yuzo
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), Pomegranate Cobalt-Blue Flower Vase, ca. 1960. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 10 1/8 × 10 1/4 inches. © Kondo Yuzo
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), Mountains Cobalt-Blue Jar, ca. 1965. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 9 5/8 × 10 inches. © Kondo Yuzo
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), Cobalt-Blue Thistle Jar, 1965. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 8 1/4 × 8 3/4 in. © Kondo Yuzo
These jars are painted with cobalt pigments, which are brushed on to pre-fired porcelain prior to glazing and a second firing. Partially inspired by Korean ceramics, these works marry form and motif thanks to their creators’ superlative potting skills as well as their ability to anticipate intended surface designs while shaping a piece on the wheel.
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), Gold-Pigment Jar, ca. 1980. Glazed porcelain with overglaze red and gold, 7 1/8 × 7 1/2 inches. © Kondo Yuzo
This group of porcelain vessels demonstrates the technical mastery of Kondo Yuzo and his younger son Hiroshi in a range of techniques, including not only underglaze cobalt blue decoration but also overglaze red and gold—innovations introduced by Yuzo around 1955.
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), Red-Ground Flower Vase, ca. 1980. Porcelain with overglaze red, 14 1/4 × 10 1/4 inches. © Kondo Yuzo
Kondo Yuzo (Japanese, 1902–1985), Cobalt-Blue and Red-Painted Prunus Jar, ca. 1983. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze enamel, 8 3/4 × 8 5/8 inches. © Kondo Yuzo
Kondo Yutaka (Japanese, 1932–1983)
Although he was the elder son of Kondo Yuzo (founder of the Kondo lineage), Kondo Yutaka worked only briefly in the family style of decorated porcelain. Traveling widely throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, he became fascinated by buncheong, a type of Korean stoneware characterized by repeated motifs incised or stamped in the body, which are then covered with white clay that is wiped off the raised sections, filling only the depressions. Along with Yutaka’s unusually formed vessels with inlaid decoration, this group includes two other works that attest to his restless spirit and global outlook, including his engagement with Western abstraction.
Kondo Yutaka (Japanese, 1932–1983), Dripping-Ink Jar, 1964. Stoneware with white and colored slip glazes, 12 1/4 × 7 1/2 × 6 3/4 inches. © Kondo Yutaka
Kondo Yutaka (Japanese, 1932–1983), 1,000-Dot-Pattern Lidded Box, 1975. Stoneware with rouletted patterning and white-slip inlay, 6 3/8 × 5 1/2 inches. © Kondo Yutaka
Kondo Yutaka (Japanese, 1932–1983), White-Slip-Patterned Flower Container, 1981. Black-glazed stoneware with white-slip inlay, 15 1/8 × 8 5/8 inches. © Kondo Yutaka
Kondo Yutaka (Japanese, 1932–1983), White-Slip-Patterned Flower Vase, ca. 1982. Black-glazed stoneware with white-slip inlay, 14 1/2 × 8 5/8 inches. © Kondo Yutaka
Kondo Hiroshi (Japanese, 1936–2012)
Kondo Hiroshi (Japanese, 1936–2012), Gold-Pigment Pine-Motif Flower Vase, ca. 1980. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze gold. © Kondo Hiroshi
Kondo Hiroshi (Japanese, 1936–2012), Grapevine Cobalt-Blue Jar, ca. 2009. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 11 x 8 ¼ inches. © Kondo Hiroshi
Kondo Hiroshi (Japanese, 1936–2012), Pine-Motif Jar, 2009. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 9 1/4 × 9 7/8 inches. © Kondo Hiroshi
Kondo Hiroshi (Japanese, 1936–2012), Bamboo Cobalt-Blue Fresh-Water Jar, 2009. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 6 7/8 × 6 1/2 inches. © Kondo Hiroshi
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958)
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Willow Cobalt-Blue Jar, 1989. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 6 5/16 × 6 3/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Cobalt-Blue Vase “Yin-Yang Direction,” 1992. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, 14 1/2 × 13 3/4 × 8 1/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
This early masterpiece marked a decisive break with the Kondo family tradition of pictorial decoration on wheel-thrown porcelain vessels. Takahiro created this work from rolled-out slabs of clay, used to form flat surfaces suited to an abstract style of motif- making. He combined cobalt blue over refined white porcelain with innovations such as a separately applied, fragile-looking sharp lip and parallel-line motifs combed into the still-soft clay body. As a contemporary critic commented: “Although Kondo makes traditional blue-and-white porcelain, he is grappling with the idea of transcending stylized boundaries … to create something that expresses his inner visual world.”
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Galaxy ’01, 2001. Glazed porcelain with underglaze blue cobalt and “silver mist”, 30 3/8 × 13 × 6 1/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Galaxy ’01, 2001. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue, green pigment, and “silver mist”, 6 1/2 × 8 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Silence of White: Freezing Point, 2004. Glazed porcelain and glass. Left: 5 1/2 × 5 × 3 5/8 inches. Right: 5 1/2 × 5 × 4 5/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Mist Box, 2005. Glazed porcelain with “silver mist;” glass lid, 7 × 17 1/4 × 3 1/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Ceramic Box, 2006. Glazed porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue and “silver mist”, 2 3/4 × 2 3/4 × 2 3/16 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Green Mist, 2007. Glazed porcelain with green pigment, “silver mist,”and glass lid, 19 1/8 × 6 1/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Monolith: “Black and White Mist,” 2007. Glazed porcelain with black patterns, “silver mist,” and glass inserts, 67 3/8 × 11 × 7 in. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Monolith: “Green Mist,” 2007. Glazed porcelain with “silver mist” and glass inserts, 67 × 11 × 7 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Red Mist, 2009. Glazed porcelain with red pigment and “silver mist,” and glass lid, 4 x 5 ½ inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Natural-Glaze Cylinder Vase, 2009. Ash-glazed stoneware, 12 × 5 7/8 in. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Gold and Silver Drops, 2010. Glazed porcelain with blue and green pigment and “gold and silver mist;” glass lid, 4 × 1 7/8 × 1 1/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Reflection: TK Self-Portrait, 2010. Glazed porcelain with “silver mist”, 9 1/2 × 6 5/8 × 8 5/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
In 2008, at the age of fifty, Takahiro began to make self-portraits, taking molds of his own head, slip-casting them in porcelain, and applying some of the techniques and designs he had developed over the preceding two decades, including “silver mist” glaze. He initiated this series, which originally bore the title “Death and Rebirth,” to mark the fact that his uncle Yutaka, whose example inspired him to devote himself to ceramics, had himself died at the age of fifty.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Reflection: TK Self-Portrait, 2010. Glazed porcelain with “silver mist”, 9 1/2 × 6 5/8 × 8 5/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Reflection: TK Self-Portrait, 2010. Glazed porcelain with cobalt blue and “silver mist”, 9 1/2 × 6 5/8 × 8 5/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Reflection: TK Self-Portraits, 2010. Unglazed porcelain, 9 1/2 × 6 7/8 × 9 1/2 inches each. © Kondo Takahiro
In contrast to the refinement of the other Reflection heads on view, this set of five sculptures was fired with brushwood and forest thinnings in an improvised outdoor kiln, which left them with a scorched, almost unfinished appearance. This grouping is a reminder that outdoor firings, typically accompanied by dancing, drumming, and religious ritual, are an important part of Kondo Takahiro’s practice.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Vessels for Life, 2011. Ash-glazed stoneware. Approximately 3 inches each. © Kondo Takahiro
These bowls are a few of the nearly two thousand that Kondo Takahiro made from local clay in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which left some 20,000 people dead or missing and triggered a series of grave nuclear incidents. Most of the bowls, fired in a simple kiln with an ascending series of firing chambers, were distributed to displaced victims of the 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), “Silver Mist” Colors Tea Bowl, 2013. Glazed porcelain with blue and green pigment and “silver mist”, 3 × 6 1/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Nested Boxes with “Silver Mist”, 2014. Glazed porcelain with black and white pigment,“silver mist,”and glass outer box, 3 1/2 × 5 1/4 × 3 7/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Monolith: “Seismic Wave,” 2016. Glazed and marbleized porcelain with “silver mist” and glass inserts, 43 1/4 × 6 1/4 × 4 3/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Monolith: “Black and White Mist,” 2016. Glazed porcelain with black patterns and “silver mist,”and glass insert, 42 1/2 × 7 1/8 × 5 1/8 in. © Kondo Takahiro
Inspired in part by a visit to the Ring of Brodgar, an ancient stone circle in Scotland’s Orkney Islands, Takahiro began to construct large-scale sculptures in 2005. Ranging between four and nearly six feet high, the pieces are assembled from rhomboid-shaped blocks of porcelain, separated by one or more blocks of cast glass. Called Monoliths, these structures—which are intentionally made to look unstable—combine technical prowess with Eastern and Western influences, thereby pushing the boundaries between conventional Japanese ceramics and clay as a medium for contemporary art.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), “Silver Mist” Bowl: “Wave,” 2016. Glazed and marbleized porcelain with “silver mist”, 3 7/8 × 4 3/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro here used his signature “silver mist” glaze along with marbleized black, white, and gray clay, a combination also featured in Monolith: “Seismic Wave” and Reduction. His choice of materials reflects the artist’s belief in the power of nature as well as humankind’s folly in attempting to control the natural world.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), White Porcelain Jar, 2017. Glazed porcelain, 11 1/8 × 14 in. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Reduction: “Wave,” 2017. Glazed and marbleized porcelain with “silver mist,”and gold lacquer repair, 31 1/2 × 25 5/8 × 17 3/8 in. © Kondo Takahiro
The Tohoku earthquake (2011) inspired Kondo Takahiro to create his Reduction series, which comprises more than twenty casts he made from life, using himself—seated in a traditional Asian meditative pose—as the model. As scholar Robert Mintz has observed, “the artist [placed] himself at the center of the tragedy and [cast] his body as a memorial marker pointing to a moment of transition.” One-fifth smaller than life-size due to shrinkage in the kiln, this Reduction is particularly unusual in that the artist stabilized a firing fault in the clay using kintsugi, a traditional gold-lacquer repair technique more typically seen on tea bowls. Takahiro’s solution is an eloquent metaphor for human fragility and resilience in the face of natural disasters.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Large Bowl with “Silver Mist” Colors, 2018. Glazed porcelain with blue cobalt pigment and “silver mist”, 3 1/4 × 6 7/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
This large bowl is a recent example of Kondo Takahiro’s use of “silver mist,” a proprietary glaze with several precious metals, which, after being kiln-fired, resemble reflective dew drops or condensation.The artist, who typically controls his glazes with extreme care, here allowed the “silver mist” to follow its own path and trickle down the sides.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Large White Porcelain Vessel, 2019. Glazed porcelain, 20 1/2 × 21 7/8 × 17 3/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
A central figure in this exhibition, Kondo Takahiro has recently returned to the potter’s wheel. Unlike the perfectly formed vessels he created earlier in his career, Takahiro now uses the wheel to create dynamic, partially collapsed forms that interrogate the relationship between a ceramic container and its inner space.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Okura Quarry Clay Tea Bowl, 2019. Crackle-glazed stoneware, 3 3/8 × 4 3/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Jar, 2019. Ash-glazed stoneware, 12 × 5 7/8 in. © Kondo Takahiro
Though Kondo Takahiro is based in Kyoto, where he works with highly refined porcelain clay and an electric kiln, he made these three pieces in the Tohoku region—more than 400 miles to the northeast—using rough local stoneware clays and firing them with pine wood in a simple kiln with an ascending series of firing chambers.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Blue-Green Sake Cup, 2019. Glazed porcelain, 2 7/8 × 2 11/16 × 1 9/16 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Red Mist, 2020. Glazed porcelain with red “silver mist”, 13 3/8 × 9 3/4 × 4 13/16 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Lapis Blue Tea Bowl, 2020. Glazed porcelain, 3 × 5 11/16 × 5 5/16 in. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Large Bowl with “Silver Mist” Colors, 2021. Glazed porcelain with blue cobalt pigment and “silver mist”, 2 × 22 5/8 in. © Kondo Takahiro
This exceptionally large bowl is a recent example of Kondo Takahiro’s use of “silver mist,” a patented glaze made from a mixture of several precious metals, which, after firing in the kiln, form a mass of gleaming, mirror-like beads. All but one of the eight works showcased here are glazed in “silver mist,” a patented amalgamation created by Takahiro from silver, frit, and, in later pieces, gold, platinum, and other materials. During the firing process, the glaze droplets solidify, giving them, in the artist’s words, “an appearance that looks almost more like water than real water.” Four of these objects also incorporate elements made from cast glass, a material that drew Takahiro’s attention during a period of study in Edinburgh, Scotland. The group demonstrates the artist’s mastery of new glaze colors, including shades of green and red; low-relief linear patterning; and a sculptural language that revisits ideas about space and time that Takahiro expressed in his earlier Cobalt-Blue Vase “Yin-Yang Direction” (also on view).
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Wave (Standing Form), 2021. Glazed and marbleized porcelain with “silver mist,” and glass cover, 28 1/8 × 12 5/8 × 6 7/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
This work is notable for Kondo Takahiro’s use of marbleized black, white, and gray clay, together with his patented “silver mist” glaze; a combination used in several exhibited works, including Monolith: “Seismic Wave” and Reduction. For Kondo, marbleizing, which cannot be fully controlled by the maker’s hand, implies a willingness to let nature take its course. This approach, in turn, reflects Takahiro’s concern with the vanity and waywardness of humanity’s interventions in the natural world.
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), Monolith: “Blue Mist,” 2021. Glazed porcelain with “silver mist” and glass inserts, 78 7/8 × 10 5/8 × 7 1/4 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Kondo Takahiro (Japanese, b.1958), “Silver Mist” Colors Tea Bowl, 2021. Glazed porcelain with blue and green pigment and “silver mist”, 3 1/4 × 6 7/8 inches. © Kondo Takahiro
Alongside his regular practice, Kondo Takahiro, like many other contemporary Japanese ceramic artists, makes bowls for use in chanoyu, the formalized tea-drinking event often called the “tea ceremony” outside Japan.These give him the opportunity to experiment with shapes and glazes not seen in his other work.