Welcome to Goldmark
My Cart
There are 0 items in your cart.
Cart Subtotal: £0.00
Ceramics - Films
Ceramics - Articles
Photos of Ken Matsuzaki Exhibition 2013
Our exhibition of over 100 pots by one of Japan’s leading potters, Ken Matsuzaki, began on Saturday 8th June. Ken Matsuzaki, favourite apprentice of Tatsuzo Shimaoka, who in turn was apprenticed to Shoji Hamada, and his wife Yoko, flew over from Japan to attend the opening. Ikebana was by Rie Day. We all had sushi, specially prepared by Yuko Sato of Ginko Sushi. Thanks to all who visited.
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. It was an artistic family – his father was a Nihonga painter and his brother went on to become a...
Ken Matsuzaki by Gil Darby
Elemental is a word often used to describe the pots of Ken Matsuzaki. In reality all hand- made pots are elemental in that they are formed from earth, thrown or shaped while being softened by water, dried in air and baked with fire.
In the sixteenth century we in the west were seduced by the few exotic and novel objects reaching our shores made from a seemingly supernatural material that was white, unlike any native ceramic body, hard and durable though at the same time fragile. It was of course porcelain and the history of western ceramics until the late nineteenth century was dictated in most part by belief in porcelain’s superiority and popularity. Clay had been de-natured and we forgot, or ignored, its close relationship to all things natural and earthy. It was only when Japan was opened up to the west in the mid nineteenth century after over two hundred years of self- imposed isolationism that we became aware of a different aesthetic through the teachings of Europeans who travelled in the Far East such as the writer Lafcadio Hearn and the potter Bernard Leach.
The fact that Japan closed her borders to foreigners in the 1630s, allowing trade only through a few tightly controlled ports meant that no new external influences reached artists and craftsmen and this resulted in a closer and more introspective study of their immediate natural world.
This shows in the work of potters such as the seventeenth century Ninsei whose enamels, inspired by the exquisite work of court lacquer decorators, were fired onto robust, familiar farmyard storage jars. His pupil Kenzan, son of a court dressmaker, likewise often mixed courtly calligraphy with rustic forms. But above all it is to nature that all great Japanese potters including Shoji Hamada, his pupil Tatsuzo Shimaoka and in turn his pupil Matsuzaki, have turned. In Matsuzaki’s works there are the obvious connections to nature in shapes based on seedpods, the ribs of vegetation, of gourd and other vegetable forms, side by side with forms derived from metalwork and lacquer. This observation, together with Matsuzaki’s ability to place a rich glaze or a calligraphic sweep so that it enhances but does not swamp the underlying thrown or coiled form put his pots in the top rank of contemporary Japanese ceramics.
Nor, one suspects, does he ever forget that he is usually creating pottery to be used for eating and drinking. If you use chopsticks then it is easier to eat rice from a curved, high-sided bowl than it is from a flat western plate. Likewise it is easier for us to eat our bacon and eggs from a flat surface using a knife and fork. There is no tradition in Japan of the handled cup and again a bowl for tea or wine needs to be comfortable to hold and have a rim that feels sympathetic on the mouth. Storage jars may be functional and fired or glazed so as not to admit damp if they are to contain dry foodstuffs, nor be porous if they are to hold liquids. However they can also be objects made simply to be admired.
Matsuzaki’s pots fit all these criteria and while they are serious creations they are never over earnest. They can be lively and colourful or quiet and humble, and on occasion the chance, or sometimes deliberate, mishap in making or firing is celebrated. No two pots of his are ever identical, in each you are conscious of the brain of the potter connected directly through his hand to the clay as it moves on the wheel or work surface. This is in direct contrast to the western European industrial ideal, exemplified by the work of the important eighteenth century English potter Josiah Wedgwood, who sought to standardise his pots so that they all came out of the kiln looking exactly the same as the previous batch. We became so used to this reliable but mechanical method of production that our ceramics industry by the late nineteenth century had mostly lost sight of the elemental nature of ceramic materials and as a reaction our so-called studio pottery movement evolved.
In Japan, after the long period of isolationism ended the sudden influx of western ideas and technologies threatened to sweep away many traditional methods of craftsmanship. Gradually the Mingei (folk art) movement grew up, with some similarities to our western Arts and Crafts movement, but with a much deeper respect for the master, and initially subservient, apprentice relationship.
Matsuzaki’s pots have grown out of all these things as well as the hazards nature has always thrown at potters in Japan. In the serious earthquake of 2011 the town Mashiko where he is based was badly hit and Matsuzaki’s wood-firing kilns were destroyed, together with many pots. His kilns are rebuilt, he is potting again, and we are privileged to see once more his masterful work.
Gil Darby
May 2013
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. It was an artistic family – his father was a Nihonga painter and his brother went on to become a...
Ken Matsuzaki – Monograph 2013
Click below for our Ken Matsuzaki 2013 monograph made to accompany his exhibition at Goldmark, featuring essay by Gil Darby and studio photographs of Matsuzaki’s work.
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. It was an artistic family – his father was a Nihonga painter and his brother went on to become a...
Ken Matsuzaki’s 2011 Exhibition Message
We asked Japanese potter Ken Matsuzaki to say a few words to camera about his 2011 ceramics exhibition at the Goldmark Gallery.
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. It was an artistic family – his father was a Nihonga painter and his brother went on to become a...
Ken Matsuzaki – Ceramics Exhibition – June 2013
We are delighted to announce an exhibition beginning Saturday 8th June 2013, featuring ceramics by leading Japanese potter Ken Matsuzaki.
Please click below to view our film invitation and our online turning pages invitation.
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. It was an artistic family – his father was a Nihonga painter and his brother went on to become a...
A Brief History: ‘Tomobako’ Japanese Wooden Boxes
In Japan ceramic pots are stored in signed wooden boxes, known as ‘Tomobako’, both for their protection and to display the provenance of the maker.
Presented by British potter Phil Rogers and writer/art critic David Whiting, this video contains archive footage of Japanese potter Ken Matsuzaki signing boxes at his pottery in Japan as well as a demonstration of him tying ribbons around finished boxes during his Goldmark exhibition.
Click here or the image below to view all Ken Matsuzaki work currently available >
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. It was an artistic family – his father was a Nihonga painter and his brother went on to become a...
Jean-Nicolas Gérard: The Potter’s Potter
This documentary follows French slipware potter Jean-Nicolas Gérard as he prepares for his 2013 exhibition at the Goldmark Gallery.
Jean-Nicolas describes himself as an artisan craftsman who, above all, wants his pottery to be used and enjoyed. His work ranges from small mugs, bowls, plates and dishes to large jars and press moulded platters. All are decorated with slip and many with sgraffito and finger marks. He takes the tradition of European slipware and infuses it with elements from modern painting, medieval earthenware and Japanese pottery. In the film we watch him throwing, glazing and decorating and explore the influences that nature and his surrounding landscape have on his pottery.
Click below for a closer look at Jean-Nicolas Gérard’s work >
Jean-Nicolas Gérard
Jean-Nicolas Gérard was born in Brazzaville (Congo) in 1954 and returned to France in 1961. He makes domestic slipware or terre vernissée...
Jean-Nicolas Gérard – Monograph 2013
A 64 page monograph to accompany Gérard’s 2013 exhibition, featuring photographs of Gérard and his pots accompanied by an essay written by David Whiting is available. All photographs by Jay Goldmark.
Jean-Nicolas Gérard
Jean-Nicolas Gérard was born in Brazzaville (Congo) in 1954 and returned to France in 1961. He makes domestic slipware or terre vernissée...
Jean-Nicolas Gérard: 2013 Ceramics Exhibition Video
Widely regarded as the potter’s potter, Gérard makes freely thrown and decorated domestic ware. He talks about his work in this short video, made for the 2013 exhibition.
Click below for a closer look at Jean-Nicolas Gérard’s work >
Jean-Nicolas Gérard
Jean-Nicolas Gérard was born in Brazzaville (Congo) in 1954 and returned to France in 1961. He makes domestic slipware or terre vernissée...
Phil Rogers: A Portfolio
Phil Rogers’ pots inspire ceramic artists and collectors around the world. In this Goldmark publication, Rogers pulls together the sources which have fed his creativity over the years, sharing with us his delight in different pots throughout the ages. With over 120 colour photographs, Rogers highlights the links between his own work and those selected pieces he most admires; from the elegant stoneware of Medieval Europe to the honest, unpretentious quality of the Korean potting tradition.
Phil Rogers
Phil Rogers was born in Newport, Gwent in 1951. He attended Newport and Swansea Colleges of Art and had originally intended to become a...
Jean-Nicolas Gérard by David Whiting
Jean-Nicolas Gérard is one of those rare potters who brings genuine life and gusto to contemporary slipware, investing the tradition of terre vernissée with a fresh and expressive energy unlike any other. He takes the best of slipware’s history in Europe and infuses it with a deep appreciation of other traditions, from expressive Eastern ceramics to modern painting, all influences that contribute to the innate physicality of his pots. It is revealing that in talking of their admiration for Gérard’s work, people may refer not only to a whole range of country pottery, French and otherwise, but perhaps medieval earthenware, and in Japan kilns such as Oribe and potters like Rosanjin, Koie and even Kaneko.
Like these artists Gérard has moved beyond conventional methods. He has moved beyond the overly tutored aspects of making, the craft skills and procedures which every potter needs but which must to some degree be transcended if a pot is to have real vigour. But the wrong kind of individuality can also make it too self-conscious. I recall a conversation with Ewen Henderson in which he discussed the danger of one particular potter slipping into mannerism because of his exaggerated detailing. It is a fine line. But every Gérard piece, while fresh and different, is also controlled – objects which not only show a great understanding of form and the vocabulary of pottery, but also its functionality, its place in the rituals of good food and cooking, in hospitality and living. Pots to make us pause and celebrate.
Born in Brazzaville in the Congo in 1954, Gérard has been based in the south of France for many years, studying ceramics in the late 1970s, training with Jean Biagini at the École des Beaux Arts in Aix-en-Provence, as well as Clare Bogino. He worked for a short while in stoneware before building his first wood-fired kiln for slipware. Since the early 1980s he has lived and worked in Valensole, a beautiful medieval hilltop village bathed in Provençal light and in summer surrounded by purple seas of lavender. Here is a landscape redolent with the art of Van Gogh and Cézanne, and on the coast with Bonnard and Matisse, a region in which colour has found some of its most potent expression, not only in the strong hues of Post-Impressionism and Fauvisim, but in the luminous creamy yellows, ochres and greens of Provençal pottery.
Jean-Nicholas Gérard’s pots add much to this heritage and to slipware in general. But he also relishes the parallels of expression between terre vernissée techniques and 20th century abstraction, from the collages of Matisse to the paintings of the New York School. There are gestural colorists like Pierre Alechinsky, where line and drawing combine so richly with pigment. Gérard makes the strong visual and physical connection between the painterly slips he uses and the thick liquidity of oil and acrylic. Gérard is in every sense a modern artist, a potter with a touch of Voulkos about him. The work is imbued with a sense of performance, of creative action, of clay and slip as wet fluid substances, more so than most potters I know. The fact that he works in series, gathering together runs of pieces and decorating swiftly from one to another removes the stiff hesitancy of much ceramic embellishment. Gérard’s gestural rhythms develop their own momentum, extending out the freedom of each form so that every dish, jar or bowl has a special personality, a strong voice of its own. They are three-dimensional canvasses for his broad pourings and dips of glaze, his rapid painting and sgraffito incising. These objects, from his covetable mugs to his big square platters, have an activity and interaction that makes them impossible to ignore.
Gérard’s applications of slip create surfaces of variation and movement onto which Gerard can further mark and inscribe across the clay. He may add other details and flourishes, his cutting and modelling equally fast and loose. His big press-moulded dishes are similarly extemporised – the rims free and uneven – while some of his powerful jars have thick unglazed necks and bases, shapes with a real swagger. Monumental flared jars for the floor offer the broadest drawing areas. These qualities are concentrated into his smaller items too, from table bowls to jugs and beakers. There is no hierarchy. Every eminently usable pot is first and foremost a piece of functional art, complete when they are installed in house or garden, planted out or passed around the dining table. Pottery is a craft as well as an art, and loses much when potters abandon useful objects in favour of just plinth and shelf. Gérard’s vivid work is an act of celebration in which we can all participate.
David Whiting
March 2013
Jean-Nicolas Gérard
Jean-Nicolas Gérard was born in Brazzaville (Congo) in 1954 and returned to France in 1961. He makes domestic slipware or terre vernissée...
Anne Mette Hjortshøj: Oval Teapots
Danish potter Anne Mette Hjortshøj talks about her oval teapots for Goldmark Gallery’s ‘Talking Pots’ series.
Click here or the image below to view all Anne Mette Hjortshøj work currently available >
Anne Mette Hjortshøj
Anne Mette Hjortshøj comes from a long line of potters from Denmark, often female, who make or have made strong, gutsy pots with little...
Jean-Nicolas Gérard – Ceramics Exhibition
Please click below to view our film invitation and our online turning pages invitation.
We are delighted to announce an exhibition beginning Saturday 27th April 2013, featuring ceramics by leading French potter Jean-Nicolas Gérard.
Widely regarded as the potter’s potter, Gérard makes freely thrown and decorated domestic ware.
Jean-Nicolas was born in Brazzaville (Congo) in 1954. He returned to France in 1961. He started studying ceramics in 1978 and was Jean Biagini’s student at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Aix-en-Provence. He also trained with Claire Bogino.
His work has now gained international acclaim. He is regularly invited internationally for workshops or residencies and has exhibited in USA, Australia, China and Japan.
His work will be with us at the gallery in a few weeks. Keep checking or sign up for our newsletter for more information.
Jean-Nicolas Gérard
Jean-Nicolas Gérard was born in Brazzaville (Congo) in 1954 and returned to France in 1961. He makes domestic slipware or terre vernissée...
Anne Mette Hjortshøj ‘Paying Honest Attention’
She lives and works on the small Danish island of Bornholm situated in the Baltic Sea.
Our documentary gives a gentle and revealing insight into one of Denmark’s leading potters. It follows Hjortshøj’s daily life; collecting clay from the local beach for her glazes, throwing and making pots in her studio, and talking about the firing of her two chamber wood-fired salt kiln and its role in producing the decorative aspects of her work. We learn of her influences both within and outside of the Danish potting tradition and the inspiration she takes from the nature of the island.
Her pots are characterised by a quiet dignity, entirely in tune with her surroundings and demonstrate the greatest respect for both beauty and function.
Click here or the image below to view all Anne Mette Hjortshøj work currently available >
Anne Mette Hjortshøj
Anne Mette Hjortshøj comes from a long line of potters from Denmark, often female, who make or have made strong, gutsy pots with little...
Ken Matsuzaki – Selected Work
Ken Matsuzaki is one of Japan’s foremost potters. We have been representing him for the last 6 years and are delighted to offer you this small selection of his work.
(ipad/iphone, click here for catalogue)
Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki was born in 1950 in Tokyo. It was an artistic family – his father was a Nihonga painter and his brother went on to become a...
-
Latest News
-
-
-
Love Art?
-
Join the Goldmark Members List for exclusive sales and special offers
