Paul Herman on mon 5 jun 06
Hello Lee and All,
This is interesting. Thinking about it, Asian ceramics have had a
huge impact on me. The anagama I fire is very Asian, but wait a
minute.... The salt chamber added above the anagama has decidedly
European roots. Then there's the pots I make. Pitchers with handles,
mugs, bowls, guinomi, teapots, plates, lidded crocks, shapes that
come from all over the world. So if I make a teabowl with saltglaze
on it, what the hell am I anyway? A cosmopolitan mongrel anarchist
potter? I kinda like that!
The internet and clayart helps a lot.
Here's to diversity, and a lot of cross fertilization,
Paul Herman
Great Basin Pottery
Doyle, California US
http://greatbasinpottery.com
On Jun 5, 2006, at 5:58 PM, Lee Love wrote:
> I think the question, "Why is American ceramics so influenced by
> Asian ceramics and not by their European roots" comes from the
> mistaken idea that culture and artistic influences are based upon
> genetics, and also overlooks America's long time relationship with
> Japan, since the black ships of Perry opened the country.
>
Mert & Holly Kilpatrick on mon 5 jun 06
I think the English Connection workshop in Staunton, VA, was maybe about
two-thirds full. Which was too bad financially, but wonderful for the
attendees...
Holly
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Russel Fouts
>Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 7:10 PM
>To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
>Subject: Asian influence on America
>
>Holly,
>
>Did they manage to fill the workshop up? It looked like there might
>be a risk of low attendance.
Lee Love on tue 6 jun 06
On 6/6/06, Paul Herman wrote:
> Hello Lee and All,
> minute.... The salt chamber added above the anagama has decidedly
> European roots.
My friend Gordon from near Dresden said that there are still 150 year
old anagama salt kilns being fired where he lives. He built the
first multichambered climbing kiln in old East Germany, working only
from photos he had seen.
>Then there's the pots I make. Pitchers with handles,
> mugs, bowls, guinomi, teapots, plates, lidded crocks, shapes that
> come from all over the world. So if I make a teabowl with saltglaze
> on it, what the hell am I anyway?
My graduation present from my Sensei was a blue salt glazed tea
bowl. I think he picked this for me in honor of my convergent
background.
A cosmopolitan mongrel anarchist
> potter? I kinda like that!
> The internet and clayart helps a lot.
> Here's to diversity, and a lot of cross fertilization,
We live in remarkable times. We have access to the knowledge
of many times and places.
David McDonald is visiting. He did his apprenticeship here
in Mashiko 30 years ago. He can't believe how much it changed.
His wife called from Arizona during lunch. He explained, when he
was here for two years 30 years ago, he NEVER called back home.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/
"The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us.
Everything. The difference ain't in who is a member and who is not,
but in who knows it and ho don't."
--Burley Coulter (Wendell Berry)
Russel Fouts on tue 6 jun 06
Holly,
Did they manage to fill the workshop up? It looked like there might
be a risk of low attendance.
>> Dan raised the question about why US potters are so strongly
influenced by the Asian aesthetic when there are strong European
traditions and Americans have been by and large of European background. <<
Interesting question, I would have said that UK potters were more
strongly influenced by the asian aesthetic. They were closer to the
Leach/Hamada/Yanagi source. I think that they have since gotten over
it and I see asian influence as being less evident than before.
The Hamada/Leach/Yanagi roadshow didn't arrive in the states until
the 50's so their influence is more recent. Maybe that's why it
appears, now that american potters are so strongly influenced.
They're still under the influence.
Where I went to school in the states, the Harrow program was used as
a model. A lot of great potters came out of that school.
Russel
Russel Fouts
Mes Potes & Mes Pots
Brussels, Belgium
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Lee Love on tue 6 jun 06
This lecture has been mentioned here before, but I just read
it again, and find it very interesting. Not only in what it says
about the Sodeisha group, but also Voulkos and the Otis group.
These groups were directly influenced by Rosanjin or indirectly
through Noguchi.
http://ceramicsmuseum.alfred.edu/perkins_lect_series/cort/corttalk.html
Crawling Through Mud: Avant-Garde Ceramics in Postwar Japan
by Louise Allison Cort
Also see Wes Rolley's Review of Noguchi's show put together by Cort:
http://www.criticalceramics.org/reviews/shows/noguchi.shtml
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/
"The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us.
Everything. The difference ain't in who is a member and who is not,
but in who knows it and ho don't."
--Burley Coulter (Wendell Berry)
Lee Love on tue 6 jun 06
Response below quote:
On 6/6/06, Russel Fouts wrote:
>
> >> Dan raised the question about why US potters are so strongly
> influenced by the Asian aesthetic when there are strong European
> traditions and Americans have been by and large of European background. <<
>
> Interesting question, I would have said that UK potters were more
> strongly influenced by the asian aesthetic. They were closer to the
> Leach/Hamada/Yanagi source. I think that they have since gotten over
> it and I see asian influence as being less evident than before.
>
> The Hamada/Leach/Yanagi roadshow didn't arrive in the states until
> the 50's so their influence is more recent.
Folks really need to examine history a little bit. All the
answers are right there.
I think the question, "Why is American ceramics so influenced by
Asian ceramics and not by their European roots" comes from the
mistaken idea that culture and artistic influences are based upon
genetics, and also overlooks America's long time relationship with
Japan, since the black ships of Perry opened the country.
With the treaty of Kanagawa in 1854 between the American delegation
headed by Navy commander Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794-1858) and the
Japanese shogunate government, a period of 216 years of Japanese
isolation ended. In the years following, huge numbers of Japanese
artifacts and handicraft articles flowed to Europe, mainly to France
and the Netherlands. The Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867 had a
Japanese stand and showed Japanese art objects to the amazed public.
Culture: man's ability to pass on information outside of the gene
system, is what makes him more than a mere animal. This transmission
of information occurs very fast and does not require generations to
happen.
If you look at the great innovations in culture and art, they
don't come from rehashing the old, but from the coming together of
cultures that are very different from each other. There were
important things going on toward the end of the 19th century. Art in
Europe was impacted by advent of the camera and the introduction of
the woodblockfprints from Japan, that were at first use crumpled up as
packing material to protect the ceramics that were being imported into
Europe. Japanese art helped influence the impressionists and
post-impressionists artists These prints, along with the
international Expo in Paris, brought influences from Japan into the
Western art world. But these were first send as packing material for
CERAMICS!
This influence is much older than the whipping boys, Leach
and Hamada, so there is no need to flog them. But also, as I
mentioned in my previous post, Rosanjin had a huge influence on
Voulkos and the Otis group. Noguchi, an American, single handedly
help create the acceptance of ceramic sculpture in Japan. So,
influences were back and forth.
Another aspect was the occupation of Japan by America and
veterans bringing home Japanese art and craft. My wife Jean's father
brought her back dolls and a Noh robe. Gave them to her when he
greeted her in her baby crib. As that generation passes, keep your
eyes open in the resale shops. Jean bought a woodblock print made
by a famous artist for $7.00 It is worth tens of thousands of
dollars. More of this stuff is going to start showing up as the
generation passes.
The other aspect that should be taken into account, is that the
West and the rest of the world has a long history of looking at Asia
for inspiration in making their high fired ceramics works. If you
want to do something, is is good to look at the source.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/
"The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us.
Everything. The difference ain't in who is a member and who is not,
but in who knows it and ho don't."
--Burley Coulter (Wendell Berry)
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