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Murata's Mingei: An Interview with Jeffrey Montgomery
The following interview was conducted between Dai Ichi Arts & Jeffrey Montgomery on the occasion of a landmark exhibition at the Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas based on the collection of Jeffrey Montgomery: "Japan, Form & Function: The Montgomery Collection." The exhibition will be on view from April 15, 2023 through April 14, 2024.
When did you begin collecting craft?
Jeffrey (referred to as JM after this first instance): I began, let’s say gathering objects at 18 years old. That was my first voyage to Japan in 1955.
Why Japanese craft specifically?
JM: If it was Japanese craft I was after I never thought of any specific category. When I was 11 years old I was at school in Canterbury UK and a lesson was given speaking of John Ruskin and the Industrial Revolution in the UK which started at the end of the 18th century. Although enchanted I never at that age thought more about it. At 13 years old in London there was again a lesson of the Industrial Revolution about the importance of William Morris and his specifically important role (c. 1845) regarding machine made items more and more appearing whilst those made by hand slowly disappearing.
What does the word Mingei mean to you?
JM: Having arrived in the USA at 14 years old I learned about the Mingei Movement, Soetsu Yanagi. There was really nothing more of interest other than fascination. Although, the reason behind my own fascination is still unknown to me. I need to say, however, that my two grandmothers, one Norwegian living in Norway, and the other British living in London, both had Asian (Chinese and Japanese) ceramics and porcelain in their homes. I think my journey began there, in my family.
It is important to say that my journey of collecting began several years later and my first of some 30 exhibits was in Lugano by chance and was seen by a director of a NYC Museum and by a director in Darmstadt Germany at both of which I had the first venues. The first three exhibits were done anonymously after which it was pointed out that to continue it was necessary to give the collection quickly haven grown and still so over the years, a name. My dear friend Irene Martin, director of the famous Thyssen collection of European painting, introduced me to my then American sponsors, where the first, second and third round of museum exhibits began.
And so I began to be known as the “Collector” however I have for many years thought of myself as the “keeper” of an important culture. I meet people. I met important dealers. I purchased that which I was attracted to and did so in a most relaxed manner and then the hunt for beauty took first place in my life. I was always fortunate to return home at the foothills of the alps and never really in the eye of museum people and other collectors with whom I have not much nor anything in common with.
Mingei is dominated by the wonderful works of the masters: Hamada Shoji, Kawai Kanjiro, Yanagi Soetsu. Who is Murata Gen in this story, and why did he stand out to you?
JM: Murata was a most talented, impoverished and stubborn individual man whose talent was recognised too late in his personal life. Nothing in my vision of Gen has changed in the years. The beauty remains.
Works as made by Hamada, Kawai, Gen as others were an important element in my gathering of objects but only a section of many important choices I made which were all personal for the most part. I discovered Murata Gen perhaps 20-25 years ago on one of my trips to Mashiko and thought of him as the personification of Mashiko pottery makers. All that I have ever seen that the man potted was a dream. He was little known in Japan, He was poor and unaccepted by Soetsu Yanagi. A story in itself.
What about collecting Mingei has stayed the same, or changed over your many years of collecting?
JM: Collecting or gathering for my taste has totally changed during the years. I have been told many times that the Montgomery collection could never be repeated as the items are no longer obtainable. When I started my enjoyment of gathering there was no form of competition nor did I have any idea of what I would either purchase or what was to be done other than placing it in its drowning area which grew and grew over the years. I was living a dream which became my reality.
Murata Gen was trained in calligraphy. Can you talk about how you think Mingei relates to other kinds of art, like painting?
JM: Mingei, folk art or whatever one wishes to call it are objects that were always handled or used through the centuries and I always am aware of that special energy the objects projects and has more than often outlived man over the years.
The title of our April exhibition on Murata Gen is “The Heart’s Eye”. We are interested in the idea of “Looking with the heart”. Collectors are among those who see things with their heart, not just their eyes, to distinguish which pieces to buy, which pieces draw their attention. That being said, how do you decide what piece you want to collect?
JM: How do I feel about gathering objects? I feel it in my gut and soul at first glance. Ponder it and eventually look for historical factors.
We connect with ceramics in many ways. Nowadays, many craft collections are always in museums, and the majority of the public connects with craft in this way. How do you connect with ceramics?
JM: It is undoubtedly difficult for a general public to connect immediately to most ceramics. Japanese ceramics are undoubtedly some of the oldest in the world. Each region and every century has a unique and quite magnificent surprise.
Reflecting on your answers, what does the story of Mingei & Murata Gen mean to you?
JM: Mingei, Murata are important elements which tell the Montgomery story which will be told in a very important manner next month at the Crow Museum exhibition as of April 15th.
