Wednesday, January 22, 2020

BLACK IN BACK

I received this large and rather colorful chawan by Ogawa Tetsuo about a week ago and it has been hanging around on the shelf as it was put up on Trocadero for a fellow collector. Ogawa Tetsuo is a dedicated potter who specializes in working with slips and Korean slipware of which this chawan is a classic example of his kohiki pottery. The chawan showcases a rather broad spectrum of colors and other visual textures including large gohonde fawn spots and colors running from off white to pink, blue-grey and muted charcoal all under a translucent and waxy ash glaze. I had originally photographed this chawan using a white background which you can see on my Trocadero marketplace but decided to try using a black background to help bring out some of the various colors and textures that make up the surface to which I think it gives a slightly different if not better read narrative of what the bowl looks like. At the end of the day it really is quite a feat that so much can be done with so little in the way of clay and a few materials to produce a chawan imbued with character and rich in subtleties that few other potters can portray in a simple slipped teabowl.

You can see more of this chawan by going over to my Trocadero page; https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1415069/LARGE-COLORFUL-KOHIKI-CHAWAN-BY-OGAWA-TETSUO