Sculptural form depicting a rising cloud, 1989
Stoneware with red slip and ash glazes
24 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches
Inv# 5711
POR
Stoneware with red slip and ash glazes
24 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches
Inv# 5711
POR
Artist Bio
Suzuki Osamu has received tremendous recognition throughout Japan including a highly praised, enormous retrospective in 1999 that toured five major Japanese museums. He began his career in 1948 with his co-founding of the Sôdeisha group, dedicated to the creation of works, independent of ancient types, to be created by those artists who refused to exhibit at established studio craft competitions. At the time, this was nearly a heretical philosophy. Suzuki and his colleagues consistently strove to stand apart from traditional works – both stylistically and technically. By the mid-fifties, non-functional work became his focus. Suzuki’s influence then and now remains huge and he has been seen for decades as one of the pioneers of avant-garde ceramic art. He worked both in porcelain and stoneware, the latter for which he is best known. Combining Shigaraki clay, typically with a tooled surface, with iron slip and ash glaze in an oxidizing kiln, he creates remarkable surfaces that change as the light falls across it. His works have entered the collections of museums throughout the world.
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1926 Born in Kyoto
1943 Graduated from the Kyoto Second Industrial School
1946 Joined the Young Ceramists Group which was established by Yagi Kazuo, Nakajima Kiyoshi and others
1948 Founding member of the Sôdeisha group
1949 Taught at the ceramic department of a Kyoto high school
(retired in 1992)
Worked for the Seven Colors Craft Company
1954 Stopped making functional ceramics
1967 Began executing a series of highly abstract horses
1969 Moved to Kiyomizu Danchi in Yamashina; Uses a gas kiln for the first time; Begins producing seihakuji pieces
1979 Appointed professor at Kyoto Municipal University of Arts and Music (retired in 1992)
Awards:
1947 First entry to the 3rd Nitten Exhibition
1960 Japan Ceramics Society Prize
1962 Golden Prize, Prague International Ceramics Exhibition, Prague
1970 Golden Prize, International Biennial Ceramics Exhibition, Vallaurisi, France
1971 Minister of Trade Prize, Faenza International Ceramics Exhibition, Italy
1984 Gold Prize, Japan Ceramic Society
The 1st Fujiwara Kei Memorial Award
1987 Award for Cultural Merits from Kyoto Prefecture
1992 Received Honorary Teacher’s Award from Kyoto Arts High School
1993 Awarded Cultural Merits form City of Kyoto
1994 Award for the Arts and Culture
1998 The 30th Annual Crafts of Japan Award
1999 Asahi Award of Excellence
Solo exhibitions:
1961 Temmanya, Okayama (thereafter, solo exhibition, periodically)
1962 Yodo Gallery, Osaka (also in 1965)
1965 Shiseidô Gallery, Tokyo and Beni Gallery, Kyoto
1989 Kyoto Prefectural Culture and Art Hall, Kyoto
1992 Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo
1996 Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo
1997 The Four Season, Setsugatôdô, Tokyo
1998 Ceramic Art of Suzuki Osamu: Poetry in Ceramic Works, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1997 Gallery Kochûkyo, Tokyo
Group exhibitions:
1948 First Sôdeisha exhibition (thereafter annually)
1949 New Master Crafts Society Exhibition
1950 Modern Japanese Ceramics Exhibition, Musée Cernuschi, Paris (also in Faenza, Italy in 1951)
1952 Modern Japanese Ceramic Exhibition (invitational)
Two-person exhibition , Kyoto Prefectural Museum, Kyoto
1959 Contemporary Japanese Ceramics Exhibition, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (also many similar exhibitions at the NMMA thereafter)
1971 Japan Ceramics Exhibition, (invitational, and several times thereafter)
1972-74 Traveling exhibition in North and South America
1979 Sôdeisha exhibition in Australia
1982 Tradition of Modern Ceramics and the Avant-garde, Suntory Museum of Art (several times at the Suntory Museum thereafter)
1986 Japon des Avant Gardes: 1910-1970, Le Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1988 Sôdeisha 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art
1991 Modern Masters in Japanese Ceramics, Shiga Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Shiga
1995 Crafts in Daily Life, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1997 The 50th anniversary exhibition, National Art Museum, Kyoto
1998 Retrospective exhibition at Mitsukoshi Etoile in Paris, and Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo and Nagoya
2001 Masters of Clay: Five artists from Kyoto, the Barry Friedman Gallery, organized by Joan B. Mirviss
2005 Exhibited and published, Contemporary Clay: Japanese ceramics for the new century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2006 Tôji: Avant-Garde et Tradition de la Cèramique Japonaise, Musèe national de cèramique Sèvres, France
2008-2009 The Dauer Collection, California State University, Sacramento, University Library Gallery
2009 Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition 2009 XX, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Ibaraki
Selected Public Collections:
Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Brooklyn Museum
Hiroshima Prefectual Art Museum
Kitamura Museum
Kodama Museum
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art
Kyoto Prefectural Sogo-Shiryokan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
National Museum of Art, Osaka
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga
Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL
Portland Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Takamatsu Municipal Museum of Art
Tokushima Prefectural Art Museum
Selected References:
Collection of Works by Suzuki Osamu, Kôdansha, Inc., 1982.
Contemporary Ceramics in Japan [Gendai Nihon no Tôgei], vol. 4, Kôdansha, 1982, pp. 66- 75, 145- 147.
Robert Yellin, “Sôdeisha pioneer rides clay horse image: Ceramice Scene,” The Japan Times, Saturday, March 27, 1999, p.15.
Ceramic Art of Suzuki Osamu: Poetry in Ceramic Works, exh. cat. edited by The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, published by Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Inc. 1999.
Robert Yellin, “Ceramic greats spotlighted: Ceramic Scene,” The Japan Times, Saturday Jan. 8, 2000, p.15.
“Ceramic Art of Suzuki Osamu’,” Honoho Geijutsu, vol. 58, 2001, pp. 8- 34.
Exhibition catalogue, Contemporary Clay: Japanese ceramics for the new century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 2005, pp. 26-27
Wege zur Japanischen Keramik: Tradition in der Gegenwart, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst zu Berlin, 2005
Christine Shimizu, Tôji: Avant-Garde et Tradition de la Cèramique Japonaise, Editions de la rèunion des musèes nationaux, Paris, 2006
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Gallery Exhibitions
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