Ken Matsuzaki Voice of the Rain
goldmark
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. Growing up Matsuzaki’s life was filled with art and culture and his family’s influence began to show when, around the age of 16, Matsuzaki developed an interest in ceramics. In 1972, after graduating from Tamagawa University’s College of Arts, he began a 3 year apprenticeship with (National Living Treasure) Tatsuzo Shimaoka. Nearing the end of his apprenticeship Matsuzaki asked Shimaoka if he would consider extending it for another 2 years, whilst he learned to develop his own style, and began creating his own motifs and palette of glazes that he would use for the next 15 years. Today, Matsuzaki has exhibited widely in Japan, America and the UK and his work is held in major galleries worldwide.
Price £10
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki Voice of the Rain
Max Waterhouse
goldmark 2015
Ken Matsuzaki ‘...drawn to her at that moment, he felt a quiet like the voice of the rain...’
Kawabata, Snow Country
When we write on the work of an artist, we like to prove that we understand. Descriptions of their work merge into explanations for them; a catalogue of histories personal and inherited becomes an ever tightening frame within which we situate our subject, tying him or her to a particular place and time, where we can say they make things in a particular fashion, resulting in work with a particular feel. In our instinct to analyse, we make of our words a great magnifying glass, catching the strands of light shed upon an artist and focusing them towards a single scorch-mark, as if our analysis could cut through all that is unnecessary and condense the purpose of this person’s life into a tiny, incisive, burning spot. Perhaps we do so for good reason: intellectual accounts of things are more welcoming of justification and criticism than the emotional and, appearing less subjective, are deemed more useful. But perhaps we try too hard to account for things in this way - to prove our understanding of them - because we are afraid of saying that we ‘do not know’. In the world of Ken Matsuzaki’s pottery there is much that we (the Anglophone ‘we’) do not know. Eyes accustomed to high tea porcelain, robust creamware jugs and rustic slipware will not look easily on the
5
twisted, sculptural form of a Yohen vase or the golden Shino of guinomi and yunomi. Seeking the comfort of familiarity, we might think to have found it in the shape of a nearby chawan; but even here, in so small and simple a thing, we are confronted with peculiarities in form and intended function that leave that most basic vessel, the primal bowl, feeling foreign to touch and sight. But the ‘not knowing’ I am writing about is more fundamental than a lack of acquaintance. I could describe a chawan and its unusual bluegreen glaze, explaining how its ostensibly free form and gentle weight are in fact the result of the strict parameters required in Chadou (the ‘Way of Tea’ and Japanese tea ceremony). I could note how each glistening Shino glaze, thick and luxurious, and its every trapped carbon bubble was distantly yet intimately connected with their forebears from the Momoyama period, first formed almost half a millennium ago. But it would go no way towards expressing how, even in this fifth exhibition of Matsuzaki’s pots at the Goldmark Gallery, eight years since his first, and after owning and revering some few pieces of his work, I still feel I do not know them, cannot account for their essential character, do not understand the nature or the source of their magnetic draw. When first asked if I would write on these pots, they seemed to me brimful of bravura, pieces with obvious showmanship, perhaps even arrogance: the bravado of their glaze surfaces, from electric blue soda to metallic Shino, jade green Oribe to naked natural ash, began in
8
equally hubristic seven-day firings and the day-and-night taming of climbing kiln dragons. But spend time with them, really look at them, and you begin to find that, behind an initial charge of charisma, these pots bear themselves with poise and dignity, a stillness that quiets and calms. As with all still things, they need space to breathe: put two Matsuzaki pots together and there is often an observable tension between the pair, a frisson as they jostle for attention duly demanded. But give them room and their nature changes dramatically, emanating with a presence that has little to do with force of personality and everything to do with an ineffable quality beyond the reach of descriptions of glaze, firing, and potting traditions. Pindar wrote that Man is a dream of a shadow; but when there comes to men a god-given gleam, radiant light rests upon them, and a gentle life. Matsuzaki’s pots are undeniably ‘radiant’ when held under light, imbued with ‘gentle life.’ But soon you sense that their true mesmerism exists within and not without them, independently of bright light and glossy surfaces and properly in the ‘dream of shadows’. One pot, the quietest of the lot, seems almost to absorb light, rather than reflect it: a dark, natural ash mizusashi (a ‘water container’ designed to hold water in tea ceremonies) with a black-red body the colour of liquorice and a lid of silvered moss. For two weeks I have carried this pot in my mind and tried to understand it through summer storms on the Cornish coast. As I write it is raining,
12
38. Yohen Water Container Natural ash glaze 19 x 19 cm
constant showers leaving the air tasting of loam and bracken. With each fresh downpour, water trickles over fern roots and woodland rocks until it forms deep, black pools that calm as the rainclouds pass. Under the softening, dappled light of dusk, still and clear, looking into one such pool of water you would feel almost as if it had no end, but went deeper and deeper, blacker and blacker the longer you looked. In this still, silent mizusashi, with its cool, grey-green ash-pool that breaks over raindrop patterns, an inky interior filled with water till bottomless and black, Matsuzaki comes as close as perhaps anyone can to capturing and distilling the meditation of a natural pool, the smell of dew on mossy logs and leaves, the sound of falling rain on a forest floor. At first sight, this is just a pot; with time, it is Mother Nature herself. I can know that Oribe ware pottery gains its distinctive green colouring from copper; but how much more I feel I know that emerald colour, how much more I begin to understand why Matsuzaki makes pots as he does and why we respond the way we do to them, when I turn and look out of my window into the woodland, at trees not so unlike those surrounding the village of Mashiko on the other side of the world, watching the forest drip and feeling a quiet like the voice of the rain. Max Waterhouse, 2015
14
3. Big Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 49 x 44 cm
16
1. Big Dish Yohen Shino 9.5 x 84 cm
21. Rectangular Vase Oribe 25 x 24 cm
20
8. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 30 x 20 cm
22
5. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 38 x 34 cm
24
23. Vase Oribe 21.5 x 21 cm
26
27. Yohen Square Vase Goshuji soda 25 x 10 cm
28
7. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 40 x 22 cm
30
2. Big Dish Jigusuri Tehake 12.5 x 77 cm
36. Incense Burner Kakewake Oribe 16 x 22.5 cm
34
13. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 27 x 16.5 cm
36
34. Teoke Vase Oribe 20.5 x 11.5 cm
38
28. Yohen Square Vase Soda 25 x 11 cm
40
40. Water Container Mashiko Karatsu 13 x 23 cm
42
22. Vase Oribe 31 x 20.5 cm
44
120. Platter Tetsu Shino Karakusa 7.5 x 39 cm
15. Yohen Vase Natural ash glaze 26 x 9 cm
48
43. Teapot Oribe 24 x 19 cm
50
51. Small Rectangular Vase Shino 18 x 9 cm
52
64. Sake Bottle Mashiko Karatsu 17 x 8.5 cm
54
Biographical Notes 1950
Born in Tokyo, Japan, the third son of Nihonga painter Matsuzaki Shuki.
1972
Graduated from Tamagawa University, School of Fine Arts, ceramic art major. Began a pottery apprenticeship with Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Mashiko (Tochigi Prefecture).
1977
Built a kiln and established a workshop in Mashiko, where he presently lives.
1980
Received the Kokugakai Arts Association Nojima Award.
1982
Became an associate member of the Kokugakai Arts Association.
1984
Received the Associate Members’ Prize of Excellence Award from the Kokugakai Arts Association.
1986
Became a full member of the Kokugakai Arts Association.
1993
Modern Japanese Ceramics Exhibition, Elysium Art, New York.
1995
Group Exhibition, Gallery Dai Ichi Arts, New York, NY. Six Master Potters of the Modern Age Exhibition, Babcock Gallery, New York, NY.
2001
Solo Exhibition, Rufford Gallery, Nottinghamshire, England.
2002
Tradition Today Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.
2003
Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.
2004
Elemental Force Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.
57
71. Cup Yohen soda 9.5 x 8 cm
58
59. Teabowl Hidasuki 9 x 10 cm
2005
55. Yohen Teabowl Goshuji soda 8 x 11 cm
Solo Exhibition, Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, Wales UK. International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK. Solo Exhibition, Rufford Gallery, Nottinghamshire, England.
2006
Transformation and Use Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.
2007
Solo Exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, England.
2008
Burning Tradition Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.
2009
Solo exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK.
2010
Exploring the Exquisite exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.
2011
Solo exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK.
Ken Matsuzaki, Utsunomiya Aoki Gallery, Japan. 2012
Ken Matsuzaki Platters, Utsunomiya Aoki Gallery, Japan. Solo exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.
2013
Solo exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, UK.
Selected Exhibitions in Japan Fukuya Department Store, Hiroshima. Hankyu Department Store, Osaka. Keio Department Store, Tokyo. Takashimaya Department Store, Yokohama. Group exhibitions with Tatsuzo Shimaoka. Matsuzaki Family Exhibitions with father and two brothers (painting, ceramics and lacquer ware).
61
Selected Museum Collections Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Sackler Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Tikotin Museum, Haifa, Israel. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England. Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA. Museum of The City of Landoshut, Germany, (Rudolf Strasser Collection). Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
45. Tetsuki Bowl Oribe 14 x 18.5 cm
44. Bowl Oribe Tetsuki 15 x 25 cm
62
goldmark
Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 Text: © Max Waterhouse 2015 Pot photographs: © Vicki Uttley Location photographs: © Jay Goldmark Design: Porter / Goldmark / Uttley ISBN 978-1-909167-28-5 goldmarkart.com
GOLDMARK POTTER’S CATALOGUES 1 Phil Rogers, 2005
17 Mike Dodd, 2011
2 Clive Bowen, 2006
18 Anne Mette Hjortshøj, 2012
3 Lisa Hammond, 2006
19 Lisa Hammond, 2012
4 Mike Dodd, 2007
20 Svend Bayer, 2012
5 Ken Matsuzaki, 2007
21 Jean-Nicolas Gérard, 2013
6 Svend Bayer, 2007
22 Ken Matsuzaki, 2013
7 Jim Malone, 2008
23 Takeshi Yasuda, 2013
8 Phil Rogers, 2008
24 Nic Collins, 2014
9 Lisa Hammond, 2009
25 Phil Rogers, 2014
10 Ken Matsuzaki, 2009
26 Ten Japanese Potters, 2014
11 Mike Dodd, 2009
27 Clive Bowen, 2014
12 Clive Bowen, 2009
28 Lee Kang-hyo, 2014
13 Svend Bayer, 2010
29 Jean-Nicolas Gérard, 2015
14 Nic Collins, 2011
30 Mike Dodd, 2015
15 Ken Matsuzaki, 2011
31 Ken Matsuzaki, 2015
16 Jim Malone, 2011
GOLDMARK POTTER’S FILMS 1 Phil Rogers, A Passion for Pots, 2005 2 Ken Matsuzaki, Elemental, 2009 3 Svend Bayer, Potter, 2010 4 Nic Collins, Potter, 2011 5 Jim Malone, Potter, 2011 6 Mike Dodd, Potter, 2011 7 Anne Mette Hjortshoj, Paying Honest Attention, 2012 8 Lisa Hammond, A Sense of Adventure, 2012 9 Jean-Nicolas Gérard, The Potter's Potter, 2013 10 Takeshi Yasuda, Made in China, 2013 11 Phil Rogers, Drawing in the Air, 2014 12 Clive Bowen, Born, Not Made, 2014 13 Lee Kang-hyo, Onggi Master, 2014
...ceramics that are, in every way, world class from a man who is, in every sense of the word, a master of this craft of ours. PHIL ROGERS
goldmark uppingham rutland