Friday, December 16, 2016

PLEASE SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER

Though not exactly the correct quote from OLIVER TWIST, I suspect you get the idea and it is a fitting sentiment when it comes to ink paintings, washes and calligraphy by potters, a medium I am particularly fond of as I suspect it give you a glimpse of how they see their work. In this case I found another landscape chawan ink wash by Juyo Mukei Bunkazai, Arakawa Toyozo depicting one of his famous E-Shino style teabowls with a Momoyama-esque underglaze ink painting rendered in what would appear to be iron pigment. Like the others of this style that I have seen, the painting is fast, direct without any waste of superfluous details to capture the true spirit in ink what his clay does for his pottery. I have seen several chawan with accompanying kakejiku scrolls over the years and though this seems to be more of a generalized chawan as a two dimensional rendering, I am still holding out hope that just one of these days, Santa or some other questionable figure will put me and a similar three dimensional chawan at the same place at the same time (as in ownership!); well one can hope anyway.