CLIVE BOWEN | MASAAKI SHIBATA MASTERS OF SLIPWARE: EAST & WEST
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
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THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
CLIVE BOWEN | MASAAKI SHIBATA MASTERS OF SLIPWARE: EAST & WEST 1 - 25 April 2020
16 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0)131 558 1200 scottish-gallery.co.uk
Masters of Slipware Clive Bowen | Masaaki Shibata In 2017, Clive Bowen was one of our invited artists celebrating our 175th anniversary; his exhibition A Devon Potter, also represented a thirty year relationship with the potter. The year before in October 2016 I had witnessed the opening of Clive’s solo exhibition at Hankyu, Osaka. It was a seminal moment as I began to fully understand and appreciate first hand that Clive Bowen is one of only a handful of British studio potters accepted as a slipware master in Japan, a country that reveres ceramics and places huge value on the beauty of everyday, domestic vessels. At Hankyu, Clive’s work was shown alongside two complementary exhibitions: a major retrospective of Bernard Leach and a curated selection of British slipware. During his last exhibition, A Devon Potter, we discussed future projects and I proposed that Clive might consider curating an exchange between east and west to celebrate the history of slipware. The idea gradually took shape and Clive suggested a joint exhibition with the Japanese slipware master Masaaki Shibata with whom he had
Clive Bowen in his Shebbear pottery, February 2020
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a long association and shared practice in slipware. We are delighted to present these two masters together for the first time in the United Kingdom, linking artists working in two distant parts of the world who share the same enduring passion for the language of clay. Masters of Slipware succeeds in joining two potteries from east and west: Sasayama (Tamba, Japan) and Shebbear (Devon). Together, in Clive’s words, these two masters ‘communicate through pots’ and both believe in the ‘values of craftsmanship and truth to materials above all else.’ We thank Clive for his following, insightful essay and interview and welcome Masaaki Shibata to The Gallery. We are also grateful to Koichiro Isaka, Director, Gallery St Ives, Tokyo for his generous help and contribution to this publication. As ever, we are indebted to Rosie Bowen for her input. Christina Jansen
Masaaki Shibata in his Sasayama pottery, February 2020
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Clive Bowen | Masaaki Shibata ‘In 2004 Edward and Shizuko Hughes brought a group of curators and photographers from the Mingeikan (The Japanese Folk Craft museums in Tokyo and Osaka) to my pottery in Devon - Shebbear Pottery. With them was Masaaki Shibata, a potter from Sasayama (Tamba, Japan), who had a long association with the Osaka Nihon Mingeikan. He was appointed as head of exhibitions by Sori Yanagi and served as a director until 2011. It was the start of a great friendship between Masaaki Shibata and I and, for me, a real rekindling of my enthusiasm for slipware. Paradoxically, the lack of a common language has not impeded this friendship in any way at all; we communicate through pots, whether looking at them, working together in Masaaki’s pottery in Sasayama, or simply appreciating them as they are used to present delicious food served at his house, or at his daughter’s exquisite restaurant beside Sasayama Castle. Masaaki and his whole family are passionate about slipware and the values of the Mingei movement. Their house, kilns, workshop and gardens are all a testament to a consistent way of life that values craftsmanship and truth to materials above all else. Masaaki’s son Taka is now building his own kiln alongside his father’s in preparation for his own life in pottery. Like his father’s it is a masterpiece of craftsmanship right down to the traditional persimmon preservative used for the wood of the kiln shed. Twenty years ago, slipware had not undergone 4
its current renaissance, it was deeply unfashionable – even Michael Cardew had encouraged me to ‘move on’ to stoneware, as he himself had. Masaaki’s enthusiasm for the medium was a reminder of what had made me decide to pursue slipware in the first place. It is the liveliness of the pots, the way they demand to be used in everyday life, the way they are not intended simply to sit in isolation on a shelf.
Clive Bowen in his Shebbear pottery, February 2020
On my first visit to Japan in 2009 - and my first visit to the Shibata pottery at Sasayama - I was taken to the slipware exhibition at the Osaka Mingeikan. This was an exhibition of the British slipware works collected by Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi during their travels around the UK in the early part of the 20th Century. They were rescuing wonderful undervalued pieces. It is an outstanding collection, examples from which
formed a special exhibit in the first Osaka exhibition by Shibata and me (in the Hankyu Exhibition Hall) in 2013. For me it was awe-inspiring – I had never seen such a large collection of extraordinary pieces. Yanagi is quoted in the catalogue introduction as saying that he believed that there was no other country that had imported so many slipware works and that the beauty of these works actually might be appreciated more in Japan than in its own homeland. That statement was probably true right up until a few years ago. Even the catalogue itself was a work of art.
Over the years that have followed Masaaki Shibata and I have shared many exhibitions in Japan – it is a privilege to be exhibiting with him at The Scottish Gallery. When discussing the disappearance of traditional slipware pottery Shoji Hamada states in the Mingeikan catalogue - Memoirs of England: English Slipware by Shoji Hamada:
‘I believe the time will come when the efforts of Leach and Cardew (to ensure the traditional way of making slipware is not forgotten) are understood and appreciated and their new tradition of slipware will emerge. This will be the rediscovery and start of a new appreciation of beauty.’ Hamada wrote those words in 1920. It’s taken a while....’ Clive Bowen, February 2020
Masaaki Shibata in his Sasayama pottery, February 2020
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CLIVE BOWEN
Japan Shrimp Bowl 2011, glazed stoneware with slip decoration (made in Masaaki Shibata’s pottery in Tamba) H3.5 x D16 cm
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Japan Slipware Vase 2015, Mashiko stoneware with slip decoration (made in Mashiko) H31 x W18 cm
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Yellow and Black Tall Medieval Jug 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H59 x W21 cm
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A selection of jugs, plates and bowls stoneware with slip decoration (jugs made in Mashiko, 2015, bowls made in Masaaki Shibata’s pottery in Tamba, 2011)
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Japan Decorated Pie Crust Dish I 2015, Mashiko stoneware with slip decoration (made in Mashiko) H3 x D18 cm
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Japan Decorated Pie Crust Dish II 2015, Mashiko stoneware with slip decoration (made in Mashiko) H3 x D18 cm
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Large Decorated Earthenware Bowl 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H17 x D40 cm
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Handled Jar 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H35 x W20 cm
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Japan Decorated Pie Crust Dish III 2011, stoneware with slip decoration (made in Masaaki Shibata’s pottery in Tamba) H3 x D18 cm Japan Decorated Pie Crust Dish IV 2011, stoneware with slip decoration (made in Masaaki Shibata’s pottery in Tamba) H3 x D18 cm
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Slip Decorated Japan Plate 2011, stoneware with slip decoration (made in Masaaki Shibata’s pottery in Tamba) D27.5 cm
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A selection of jugs, plates, dishes, bowls and lidded jars 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration
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Large Decorated Storage Jar 2018, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H60 x W39 cm
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Japan Decorated Plate I 2015, Oribe style Mashiko stoneware with slip decoration (made in Mashiko) H2 x D26 cm
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Japan Decorated Plate II 2015, Oribe style Mashiko stoneware with slip decoration (made in Mashiko) H2 x D26 cm
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Large Square Decorated Platter 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H45 x D45 cm opposite: Spring Medieval Jug 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H61 x W24 cm
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‘Masaaki’s enthusiasm for the medium was a reminder of what had made me decide to pursue slipware in the first place. It is the liveliness of the pots, the way they demand to be used in everyday life, the way they are not intended simply to sit in isolation on a shelf.’ Clive Bowen
Decorated Flask with Shrimp and Flower 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H20 x W16 cm
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Bottle Vase 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H23 x W18 cm
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Large Decorated Jar 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H57 x W29 cm
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‘In Japan, It is wonderful to be immersed in a world where there is a real respect for tradition but in an ongoing, dynamic way, not just a fossilised way…After having experienced the rather reverential attitude towards Japanese pottery in this country over so many years, it was great to experience the appreciation of ceramics where it is so much a part of everyday life and culture.’ Clive Bowen
Large Green and Yellow Platter 2019, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H55 x W73 cm
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Decorated Tiles glazed earthenware with slip decoration Crab, 2015, H23.5 x W23.5 cm Bird, 2019, H14 x W14 cm Fish, 2019, H21 x W21 cm opposite: Large Decorated Double Handled Jar 2018, glazed earthenware with slip decoration H51 x W27 cm
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Biography Clive Bowen b.1943, Cardiff 1959 - 1963
Painting & Etching at Cardiff Art School
1965 - 1969
Apprenticeship with Michael Leach at Yelland Pottery in North Devon
1971
Purchased a small agricultural property at Shebbear, near Holsworthy in
North Devon and set up a workshop in the former farm outhouses where he
still continues to work today.
Selected Exhibitions: 2020
Masters of Slipware: East and West, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2019
The Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham
2019
Hankyu Department Store, Osaka, Japan
2017
The Devon Potter, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2016
Hankyu Department Store, Osaka, Japan
2015
Hankyu Department Store, Osaka, Japan
2014
The Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham
2013 Clive Bowen at 70, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Masaaki Shibata and Clive Bowen, Hankyu Department Store, Osaka
2009
Mashiko Museum of Ceramics, Japan The Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham Contemorary Ceramics, London
Masaaki Shibata and Clive Bowen, Gallery St Ives, Tokyo (2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019)
2008 The Octagon, Whichford Pottery 2004 Beardsmore Gallery, London 2003 Rufford Craft Centre, Nottinghamshire Ombersley Gallery, Worcestershire 2002 Galerie Besson, London Public Collections: Victoria and Albert Museum
Stoke on Trent City Museum
National Museum of Wales
Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter
Ulster Museum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Crafts Council Collection
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canada
York Art Gallery
Mingeikan, Tokyo
Nottingham Museum
Mashiko Museum of Ceramics, Japan
Liverpool Museum
Sammlung Rudolph Strasser, Landshut Museum, Germany
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opposite: Clive Bowen in his Shebbear pottery, February 2020
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Notes from the West | Clive Bowen ‘I started my career as a painter; I have always drawn and sketched - in a predigital era this is what I used, rather than a camera, to record impressions, travels, pots in museums. Drawing reminds you to keep looking. I go to Andalusia often and there is a favourite mountain chapel there that I revisit every time. I always find another aspect of this place that I want to look at, draw and record. My pottery training with Michael Leach was crucial. National Service was abolished the year before I was due to do it, but I guess in a sense I did my National Service with Michael Leach. It was a very rigorous, disciplined training and that discipline has undoubtedly stayed with me. It was, in a sense, a very zen training, with endless repetition of mundane tasks. There was no pandering to my ego. Entire boards of pots were discarded if they were deemed not be good enough, kilns were unpacked and repacked before firing if the space hadn’t been used efficiently enough. I waxed the showroom floor like the Karate Kid - I learnt by constant repetition and I learnt to make the very best pot I could, even if it was only a cylinder. I was drilled in every aspect of workshop practice. I think now that my work is much freer, I’ve done it for so long that I don’t have to labour at the making skills, and I don’t have to overthink it. When I started my apprenticeship with Michael, I truly needed some discipline. Over the years it has sometimes been 34
difficult for me to unpick the rather puritanical sense of guilt from those early days, a rather severe work ethic which means that even now I feel guilty if I am not in the pottery every day. I have been lucky to be able to be creative in my working life, to make things every day. I’ve been lucky to do what I do for over fifty years. Many of my pots are like old friends that I will never tire of such as the jug or storage jar – the next one is always going to be the very best one! Like scales in music, the repetition of domestic ware is the meditation that underpins everything else. It’s been said in various ways before, they’re the same pot but all are different. There is really no such thing as a typical day in the pottery, but if I were to have to invent one, I would say it goes something like this.... get up and drink tea until I can no longer avoid the workshop. Go in, light the stove and survey what is to be done, have breakfast as a further delaying tactic, go back, start making and listen to radio 4 until I want to put music on instead, anyone from Tom Waits to Duke Ellington to Glenn Gould. Today I am listening to Cannonball Adderley, Buddy Rich and the soundtrack to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. I love listening to music. Some of my greatest memories are of live music, seeing Ray Charles and Duke Ellington, for example. I get a lot from the emotion in music and I can’t imagine working
without it. At the moment I am throwing jugs, later there is going to be a lot of decorating and glazing to catch up on, but I prefer to work in relatively large batches so I can get into a rhythm of making whatever piece it is. Apart from stopping for lunch for about an hour, the workshop is where I’ll be until 5 or 6 pm, unless of course, as often happens, there are visitors to the pottery. These days I don’t go back into the pottery in the evenings as much as I used to do when I was younger. The most challenging aspect of my work is without a doubt, the pressure of a deadline. I rather suspect that any potter who pretends he is ready for an exhibition with time to spare is lying.
Or very much more organised than I am. Or Japanese. Being a potter is just what I do. Everybody has to get up and do something in the morning, surely?! Otherwise it’s daytime television. Maybe it’s the pressure of making that extra order of pasta bowls that keeps me going. Good music, good food, good movies or something like that. Let’s not forget that there is also a compelling financial incentive for those of us without a pension plan and for those of us who have always depended, over the last fifty years, solely on what we make and sell to pay the bills and to raise a family. There is no Plan B. Beyond the pottery, I teach quite a few people these days, many of them are retired, or those wanting to embark on a second career. The common factor for all of them seems to be that they want to do something with their hands, they want to get them into clay, they want to create something. I think this is symptomatic of a wider desire, in this digital age, to connect with something handmade, something ‘real’ whether it is pottery, woodwork, artisan food, whatever... I think that, by extension, many people want to have things in their lives that speak of the maker’s hand. Slipware is one of those things and perhaps, within the world of ceramics, a contrast to the sleek lines of some modern pottery.
Clive Bowen’s Shebbear kiln, c. 1975
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In this country, I sometimes think we are losing the appreciation of skill. So much of the pleasure of being in Japan is about watching things: cooking, paper making, lacquer work - even parcel wrapping is done with great care and skill. In Japan it is wonderful to be immersed in a world where there is a real respect for tradition but in an ongoing, dynamic way, not just a fossilised way. Whenever I go there, it is as if pottery is a living progressive activity, whether with the Shibatas in Sasayama or in Okinawa at the Matsuda pottery in Yomitan. After having experienced the rather reverential attitude towards Japanese pottery in this country over so many years, it was great to experience pottery in a country where it is so much part of everyday life and culture. The other major factor which has always impressed me about Japan is the fact that so many of the general public are aware of and informed about ceramics which makes for a lot of enthusiasm. Visitors to my exhibitions are genuinely interested and informed; they spend an impressive amount of time studying each work in detail. When you are in a country where the choice of bowl or plate for that day’s meal is important to the overall enjoyment of the meal it becomes easy to see how ceramics is simply an integral part of daily life. In this exhibition, the difference between my pots at home and in Japan is purely technical - i.e the material was stoneware and therefore fired at a 36
higher temperature as opposed to earthenware, but I worked very much in the same style as I work in England. Oribe is a style of stoneware which evolved as a distinct style of Japanese pottery from the late 16th Century onwards, and this style appeals to a lot of modern practitioners such as Ryoji Koie and Ken Matsuzaki, although neither of them make it exclusively, but include it amongst the different types of work that they make. My Oribe style pieces were made at Ken Matsuzaki’s workshop in Mashiko. Masaaki Shibata and I are different people, our work is our medium for expressing ourselves. There are the technical differences I have partially explained, the stuff of endless earnest pottery articles, but it comes down to the simple fact that I make my pots and he makes his. I am delighted that we are showing our work together in the UK for the first time. This is who we are.’ Clive Bowen, February 2020
opposite: Clive Bowen’s gallery at Shebbear, February 2020
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MASAAKI SHIBATA
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I have always been making pots for contemporary everyday life in Tamba, one of the Japanese Six Ancient Kilns, while staying true to traditional methods and using local clay and firing with a climbing kiln. During my career I became fascinated by English slipware used in everyday life in the 18th and 19th century. I investigated how they were made, and this inspired me to make high fired slipware as ceramics of Tamba. Masaaki Shibata
Large Round Dish 2017, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H10 x W49 cm
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Oval Dish I 2018, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H32 x W58 cm
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Square Dish I 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H37.5 x W33 cm Square Dish II 2019, ash glazed stoneware with slip decoration H35 x W31.5 cm
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Vase with Lugs I 2019, black glazed stoneware with slip decoration H22.5 x W14 cm Vase with Lugs II 2019, ash glazed stoneware with slip decoration H14.5 x W13 cm
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Oval Dish II 2018, ash glazed stoneware with slip decoration H25 x W34.5 cm
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‘I am pleased to show my pieces to a UK audience and I am looking forward to their reaction. There have been exchanges between craftsmen in the UK and Japan based on deep friendships between Bernard Leach, Soetsu Yanagi and Shoji Hamada. I am hoping new exchanges will arise through this first joint exhibition with Clive Bowen in the UK, following our six joint exhibitions in Japan.’ Masaaki Shibata
White Flat Bottle 2018, white glazed stoneware H24.5 x W18 cm
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Oval Dish IV 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H16.5 x W30 cm Round Dish III 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration D16 cm
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Round Dish I 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration D16 cm Round Dish II 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration D16 cm
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Flat Bottle 2018, amber glazed stoneware H21 x W16 cm Vase 2019, amber glazed stoneware H28.5 x W17 cm
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Square Bottle 2017, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H33 x W13 cm
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Square Dish V 2019, ash glazed stoneware with slip decoration H23.5 x W21 cm Oval Dish III 2019, ash glazed stoneware with slip decoration H16.5 x W30 cm
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Teapot I 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H16 x W22.5 x D13 cm
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Teapot II 2019, amber and cobalt glazed stoneware with slip decoration H13 x W18 x D11.5 cm Teapot III 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H15.5 x W19 x D11 cm Teapot IV 2019, cobalt glazed stoneware H11.5 x W17 x D10 cm
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Teapot V 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H9.5 x W13 x D7.5 cm Teapot VI 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H9 x W12.5 x D7 cm
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Tea Set 2019, amber glazed stoneware teapot H12 x W7 x D9 cm
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Jug III 2019, ash and amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H14 x W12 cm Jug II 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H16 x W13 cm
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Square Dish III 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H23.5 x W21 cm Square Dish IV 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H23.5 x W21 cm
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Lidded Jar 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration H12 x W10 cm
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Chawan I 2019, amber and cobalt glazed stoneware H8.5 x D11 cm Chawan II 2019, amber glazed stoneware H9 x D11.5 cm Chawan III 2019, cobalt glazed stoneware H8.5 x D11.5 cm
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Yunomi I 2019, amber glazed stoneware H10 x D8.5 cm Yunomi III 2019, amber glazed stoneware H9 x D7.5 cm Yunomi V 2019, ash glazed stoneware H8.5 x D8 cm
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Yunomi II 2019, white glazed stoneware H9 x D7.5 cm Yunomi IV 2019, amber glazed stoneware H8.5 x D7.5 cm
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Round Dish IV 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration D16 cm Round Dish V 2019, amber glazed stoneware with slip decoration D16 cm
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Biography Masaaki Shibata b.1948, Tokyo, Japan
1971
Graduated from Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, Tokyo
Apprenticed to Mr Kazutaka Ikuta in Tamba
1972
Visited Mr Shigeo Suzuki in Iwata, Shizuoka and studied under him
1975
Established his own studio in Sasayama, Tamba, Japan
Selected Exhibitions: 2020
Masters of Slipware: East and West, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2013
Masaaki Shibata and Clive Bowen, Hankyu Department Store, Osaka
2009
Masaaki Shibata and Clive Bowen, Gallery St Ives, Tokyo (2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019)
2006
Keihan Department Store, Moriguchi, Osaka
Mitsukoshi Department Store, Nihombashi, Tokyo (every three years subsequently)
2003
English Ancient Ceramics: SLIPWARE, Japan Folk Crafts Museum, collaborated on the
exhibition and the accompanying catalogue
2001
Kokten Korgei, Blackwell House, Cumbria
1985
Solo exhibition at Hankyu Department Store, Osaka (every year thereafter)
1980
Okura Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo
Public Collections: The Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Tokyo The Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Osaka The Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo Musashino Art University
opposite: Masaaki Shibata in his Sasayama pottery, February 2020
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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Clive Bowen | Masaaki Shibata Masters of Slipware: East & West 1 - 25 April 2020 The Scottish Gallery would like to give special thanks to Koichiro Isaka, Director, Gallery St. Ives, Tokyo and Rosie Bowen. Exhibition can be viewed online at: scottish-gallery.co.uk/mastersofslipware ISBN: 978-1-912900-18-3 Photography p6, 7, 19, 27 and inside front cover by Drew Raitt Photography of p3, 5, 38 - 67 and inside back cover by Takasumi Shibata Front cover: Clive Bowen, Japan Decorated Pie Crust Dish, 2019 (p13) Back cover: Masaaki Shibata, Square Dish IV, 2019 (p59) Designed and produced by The Scottish Gallery Printed by J Thomson Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842 16 DUNDAS STREET • EDINBURGH EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 • scottish-gallery.co.uk
oppostite: Masaaki Shibata in his Sasayama pottery, February 2020
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CLIVE BOWEN | MASAAKI SHIBATA MASTERS OF SLIPWARE: EAST & WEST
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
70