Mudai (Untitled)
Katō Tsubusa, Mudai (Untitled), ca. 2000, porcelain with pale bluish green glaze (seihakuji), Museum Purchase: Margery Hoffman Smith Fund, © artist or other rights holder, 2001.11
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Mudai (Untitled)
- Artist
- Date
ca. 2000
- Medium
porcelain with pale bluish green glaze (seihakuji)
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
9 3/8 in x 24 3/4 in x 13 3/4 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
inscription: Mu dai, outside of box lid
- Collection Area
Asian Art
- Category
Ceramics
Modern and Contemporary Ceramics
- Object Type
sculpture
- Culture
Japanese
- Credit Line
Museum Purchase: Margery Hoffman Smith Fund
- Accession Number
2001.11
- Copyright
© artist or other rights holder
- Terms
Katō Tsubusa has made a name for himself in the international art market for his unique handling of clay. Using a hard, snow-white white porcelain clay from New Zealand, he molds or throws his vessels and allows the clay to harden just slightly before cutting and shaping its final form. “The crest of a wave or the tip of a roaring flame: it is these fleeting forms that I try to capture in a moment of time.”
Then, while it is still moist enough to retain plasticity, he pulls, twists, and tears it into breathtaking sculptural forms that seem to freeze in motion in space and time. In this example, his trademark pale blue glaze glimmers and pools over the surface, adding an ethereal beauty to the work.
- Exhibitions
2008 Eternal Celadon: Ceramics and Jade from East Asia Portland Art Museum
2014 Hand and Wheel: Contemporary Japanese Clay Portland Art Museum
