Shoji Hamada - Design Masters New York Wednesday, December 15, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Bernard Leach, St. Ives, UK; Janet Leach, St. Ives, UK; thence by descent exhibited First solo exhibition, Mitsukoshi Department Store, Osaka, 1930; Fifth annual solo exhibition, Kyukyodo Department Store, Tokyo, 1930

  • Exhibited

    First solo exhibition, Mitsukoshi Department Store, Osaka, 1930; Fifth annual solo exhibition, Kyukyodo Department Store, Tokyo, 1930

  • Literature

    Hamada Shoji: Pottery Collection, Tokyo, 1930, illustrated pl. 50; Catalogue of the Ohara Museum of Art Collection 1920–1990, Tokyo, 1990, p. 275 item IV-D12 for an illustration of a jar with similar design

  • Catalogue Essay

    “A work with a plain surface is a beautiful thing, but intentional, deliberate plainness becomes a type of pattern. It lacks both the beauty and depth of the truly adorned. By contrast, there are many articles where pattern is used in such a way as to create an effect of no pattern. The pattern that is time-tested and matured harmonizes and does not fight with the piece it adorns. In spirit, this well-decorated piece is identical to the one with truly no pattern — this is the real meaning of plainness.”
    Shoji Hamada, in Kogei, Vol. 8, 1931

52

Large and important early jar, from the Mashiko kiln

1930
Stoneware, thick brushed “Hakeme” and glaze design. Remnants of old exhibition
and inventory stickers with indecipherable script.

12 in. (30.5 cm.) high


Remnants of old exhibition and inventory stickers with indecipherable script.

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for $60,000

Design Masters

15 December 2010
New York