A reception was held this past Thursday evening at Erik Thomsen Gallery for Fukami Sueharu, the Japanese sculptor whose works are currently on exhibit. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to have met such a great artist.
I first encountered Fukami's ceramic work earlier this year at Points of Departure, an exhibit at the Japan Society of works on loan from the Brooklyn Museum. What struck me most forcibly when on that occasion I viewed Infinity II (1994) was its distinctly modernist appearance. The first association that came to mind was the Romanian sculptor Brâncuși. Though Fukami himself has never acknowledged any Western influence on his work, it's impossible to believe when viewing these pieces that he could have been completely unaware of artistic tendencies that so closely paralleled his own style of expression. Here is the same airiness and flowing freedom of movement that one finds in the best of Brâncuși's sculptures. These wavelike pieces by Fukami seem in fact the very embodiment of an artist's soaring imagination.
One aspect of Fukami's work I noted at the exhibit was the enormous change that resulted from the use of different ceramic techniques. And the contrast was not merely a superficial dissimilarity in appearance such as one might expect from a change in method. Rather, it seemed at times as though the work of two artists rather than only the one had been put on display. Just one look at any given work was sufficient to identify the procedure used to create it. The first method was that of the potter's wheel. The wheel thrown works were those which one customarily associates with custom ceramics made for everyday use. These pieces included such artifacts as flower vases and an incense burner as well as familiar box shapes. The second method was the high pressure slip casting normally used in the commercial manufacture of large standardized ceramics such as sanitary fixtures. Fukami was first introduced to this process by his older brother in 1980. It was the use of a mold that enabled the artist to produce the purely abstract works that are so avant-garde in appearance. Though it was the slip cast works that were the most striking at this show and drew the most attention, the wheel thrown works possessed a low key charm of their own that invited closer inspection and rewarded the attentive viewer with an appreciation of their unaffected beauty.
Apart from their significance as fine art, Fukami's ceramics are also notable for the breathtaking quality of their craftsmanship. While the designs themselves are of striking simplicity, it would be a great mistake to believe that they were therefore easy to produce. One can only imagine how arduous a process was required to create just the smooth glaze that so evenly coats each piece. Only years of constant practice could give an artist the control needed to execute such work. And indeed Fukami learned the art of porcelain manufacture from his father. As Shinya Maezaki notes in the informative essay included in the catalog:
"Growing up in such an environment, Fukami came to understand how important it was not to make any compromises in the selection of raw materials, the thoroughness of one’s preparations, or the quality of the finished work. In this respect, his formation as a ceramic artist was very different from that of someone who comes to ceramics as a hobby or diversion. As the son of a yakiya, a ceramic manufacturer with his own noborigama, he never once saw ceramics merely as a source of pleasure."
The Thomsen Gallery is itself impressive for the quality of the artists it presents. In June, I attended an exhibit at the gallery of abstract kanji paintings by Inoue Yūichi and considered it the best one-man show I'd seen in many years. Part of Eric's success is no doubt due to his training as well as his fluency in Japanese. A biographical entry on the gallery's website notes that he "was the first foreigner to apprentice to an art dealer in Japan (the Tanaka Onkodô Gallery in Aoyama, Tokyo)." When it came to staging the Fukami exhibit, he was also helped by the fact that his brother is married to Fukami's niece. It was at the wedding of those two that Eric and Fukami first met.
On Thursday evening I also met Erik's wife Cornelia, a significant artist in her own right. Though I haven't yet had a chance to see her original paintings - they are currently on exhibit at the Lesley Feely Gallery - I was very impressed by the quality of her work as shown in the catalog on display.
The Fukami Sueharu exhibit continues through October 31, 2014.
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