RED, WHITE & BLUE (AND SOME GOLD) II

Illustrated is a large pure white porcelain tsubo with vivid areas of undeglaze blue and overglaze red and gold over a fine transparent clear glaze. Fine detail is added to the grapes and leaves using sgrafitto through the overglazes creating this fine Kyoto tsubo by Kondo Hiroshi. Kondo Hiroshi (b.1936), son of NIngen Kokuho,Kondo Yuzo and younger brother of Kondo Yutaka, focused on his father's patented style of sometsuke ware of which this piece is a wonderful example. Spending his life dedicated to this technique, Hiroshi create unique works influenced by his father and Tomimoto Kenkichi while carving out a style that can be seen as his own. Besides being a full time potter, Kondo Hiroshi went on to teach and even ended up teaching at several colleges/ universities in 1968 and again in 2006, he also went on to win the prestigious "Tomimoto Prize" in 1973. Just like the work of his father, Kondo Hiroshi uses his stoic, pure white porcelain forms as canvas that he adorns in a spontaneous and fluid design that captures the essence of not only sometsuke but also the heart and soul of Japanese sumi-e style painting and Kyo-yaki of a modern age.

INK WASH II

Illustrated is a rich and fluid ink water color by Ningen Kokuho, Tomimoto Kenkichi. Most likely rendered during the 1940's, this design shows the vivid and casual designs he was well known for earlier on in his career as well as a bit of inspiration from William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement. The form is classic Tomimoto and was used through out his career but these well conceived but more naturalistic designs gave way to his more detail oriented and constructed design for which he is best known for today. I really admire his early works which included slip trailed, carved, raku and simple sometsuke pottery and shows his pathway to the complex iro-e style of enamel painting that he was made Ningen Kokuho for. What is clearly seen in the ink wash is Tomimoto's impressive use of space and color and whether it is paper or porcelain, his mastery of materials, technique and design stand out among the best of the artist-potters of the 20th century.

You can see a previous blog post which shows another ink wash by clicking on the link provided;
http://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/2012/11/its-wash.html
 

DREAM

Illustrated is a bold sometsuke plate by eccentric calligrapher, painter, potter, lacquer artist and exploiter of various other mediums; Sato Katsuhiko. Painted in rich, deep cobalt gosu, the porcelain plate was provided and Sato created a dreamy kanji, yume which means dream. Considering his background, his ability to merge 2-D and 3-D is nothing short of impressive but it is the wide array of works, styles, imagery and eccentricity that makes the works of Sato Katsuhiko so impressive and dynamic.

SOMETSUKE II

Illustrated is a rather elegant, even classic Korean inspired form made of rugged porcelain with vivid, even wild sometsuke blue underglaze bringing the pot to life. The decoration of the wild, snarling tiger is by eccentric, renaissance artist, Sato Katsuhiko and in this case, his has rendered one of his rich two-dimensional paintings on to a stark, three-dimensional form, a skill he is quite adept at. Katsuhiko is truly a renaissance artist, working across every conceivable medium and creating bold and at times, confrontational images in a wide array of material. In this particular case, the pot was thrown by a potter, not Sato and then decorated in cobalt sometsuke style at which he was exceptional gifted. If you look closely, at the neck of the pot, nestled between the tiger's ears, Sato has painted one of his trademark Jizo for which he is well known for. One can not help but be engaged by the pot and image, its humor infectious and its energy palpable, the artist's real talent may be his unique ability to connect with the viewer in a wide array of emotions, pushing the button of those his works come in contact with.

SOMETSUKE

Kondo Yuzo (1902-1985) was arguably one of the greatest sometsuke potters of the 20^th century and for his dedication to his art, he was made Juyo Mukei Bunkazai in 1985. I have always been captivated by the elegance and simplicity of most of his work and the stark white background plays perfect host for his bold and quick sometsuke blue brushwork.

Illustrated is a prepatory sketch for one on Kondo Yuzo’s small blue and white hachi plates and though the accompanying plate is less involved in design, you can easily see the fact that through his repeated painting of the persimmon, time and time again they appear nearly identical. Like Hamada Shoji who brushed his iconic “sugar cane” motif thousands of times, Kondo Yuzo has achieved the same repetitious spontaneity, characteristic among many of the great potters of 20^th century Japan.