Into the Fold: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Horvitz Collection

Featuring exquisite works from the Horvitz Collection, this traveling exhibition, originally curated by the Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, offers a glimpse of the variety of Japanese ceramics in modern times. The exhibition further presents the connections between contemporary American and Japanese ceramics.

In the 1930s, Japanese potter Hamada Shōji revived the spontaneous beauty of folk pottery. During the 1940s and ’50s, his style and philosophy informed American artists such as Warren MacKenzie and Ken Ferguson, who incorporated the ideal of rustic beauty into their work. This synthesis of modest beauty and function flourished in Japan and the United States.

At the same time, Japanese ceramicists pushed the boundaries of the medium. They took inspiration from European and American avant-garde art, creating work that ignored utility and ceramic conventions. Artists such as Takamori Akio and Katsumata Chieko studied with American artists and created unconventional clay sculptures.

Image: Katsumata Chieko, Japanese (born 1950). Akoda Pumpkin, 2013. Stoneware with glaze, 15 3/4 × 17 5/16 × 15 3/8 inches (40.0 × 44.0 × 39.1 cm). Collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz.