Change has a way of happening in
incremental stages that are so small
that we find ourselves accepting and
adapting to them without noticing or,
more importantly, without examining
their importance and meaning. When a
period of time, however, separates us
from circumstances, we are able, upon
retuning to those circumstances, to see
the changes that have taken place much
more clearly than we would have had we
been constantly present while they were
occurring. That is what happened to me
when I visited SOFA 2006 in New York. It
had been fifteen years since I had
attended a SOFA fair and I was
interested in seeing what the high-end
galleries were betting would be the next
commercially successful trend in the
ceramics field.
Some in the field may wince at my use of
the term “commercial”. I have had over
the years countless conversations with
both potters and ceramic sculptors who
complain about how commercial galleries
and SOFA represented the worst aspect of
the marketplace. Potters, who rely
primarily on high volume sales of their
work to the general public, voice their
disdain by adopting a quasi moralistic
stance that that basically says that
SOFA and the commercial galleries that
attend, promote high priced objects that
common, ordinary people cannot afford.
The work exhibited at SOFA therefore is
seen, by them as being elitist and
serving only as social signifiers to the
wealthy. On the other hand, ceramic
sculptors who, for the most part, derive
their income from their positions in
academe, find nothing wrong with the
high prices, their complaint centers
around the argument that SOFA and
commercial galleries are not showing
work that is cutting edge and
experimental, for example, their own.
There is probably an element of truth in
both of these arguments. However, I
would argue that SOFA, like say, the
publications in the ceramics field,
gives us an unvarnished picture of what
is taking place in the field at the
moment. One may not like what one sees
but that does not change the reality
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Takashi Hinoda—AMORAL JOURNEY,
2003
H 41 x W 25 x L 16 inches
Presented with permission from Dai
Ichi Arts, Ltd.
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SOFA 2006 in New York had 59 galleries
exhibiting, of those galleries
approximately 13 were devoted to
ceramics. Glass with 16 galleries was,
as always, the predominant medium.
There were 12 galleries that showed a
cross section of medium, ranging from
syrupy painting and sculpture to the
other “crafts” mediums. Nine galleries
exhibited jewelry and 4 were devoted
to furniture. This is not a scientific
statistical analysis, just an
approximate breakdown to try and give
the reader a sense of what was there.
I struggled, as I looked at the
offerings in ceramics, to find some
kind of emerging trend, something
“new” and “hot” that would occupy the
ceramics field’s publications,
galleries and collectors until the
next trend has come along. That is, at
least, how the ceramics field in the
United States has evolved over the
past 40 years and that is what one has
come to expect.
It seems, though, that this
tendency—this constant obsession with
the “new”—has run its course. The
ceramics field has broken all the
boundaries it has been able to locate,
save the ultimate one of abandoning
material. We are left with the same
categories, which, I would argue are
the ones that we have always
historically had—the sculptural
vessel, abstract and figurative
sculpture and the pot. All of these
genres were represented at SOFA, even
the lowly pot. There were, however, a
number of significant differences from
my previous visits to SOFA. Before I
write about those differences, I have
to say that the overall tone or
sensibility of SOFA has not changed
much. Glass, which has always had the
largest presence, was just as
saccharine and gaudy as it ever was. I
was part of a number of conversations
with ceramics collectors and dealers
who wondered out loud if the
attraction to this kind of superficial
beauty could be explained by some yet
unfound chromosome. Ceramics was not
entirely immune to this tendency. The
pervasiveness of kitsch masquerading
as social commentary assaulted you
from time to time. It was hard to take
this work seriously when even the fig
leaf of social commentary could not
hide its seemingly wanton desire to
appeal to the audience.
There were however some interesting
changes in ceramics and I have chosen
to write about them rather than
spending time on the status quo just
mentioned which continues to be a
source of frustration to some and
apparently a fount of unending joy to
others. One of the most heartening
aspects to this SOFA was that none of
the genres in the ceramics field held
a pre-eminent position; they all
seemed to be represented to the point
that it made it impossible to declare
that one of them held a more important
place in culture at the moment than
any of the others. Perhaps the most
interesting development though, was
that approximately half of the
galleries that exhibited ceramics
exclusively were from outside the
United States or were exhibiting work
that was not American. The obvious
inference one can draw from this is
that the American ceramics market is
still strong; the more subtle point
would be that American collectors are,
for whatever reasons, starting to look
beyond their own shores for work that
engages them.
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Kouichi Uchida—Yamaki Art Gallery |
New York based Dai Ichi Arts and Joan
Mirviss Ltd. both exhibited ceramic
work from Japan. Dai Ichi exhibited
the sculpture by Takashi Hinoda and
Tsubusa Kato while Joan Mirviss showed
sculptural vessels and pots by Mihara
Gen and Kato Yasukage. Yamaki Gallery
from Osaka was also present and
highlighted sculpture by Etsuko
Tashima that combines clay and glass
and pottery by Kouichi Uchida.
Uchida’s work was perhaps the most
compelling pottery at SOFA by a living
potter. His pots were complex and
dramatic without being predictably
Japanese. What was interesting about
the offerings in Japanese ceramics by
these galleries was that they were by
younger artists (that of course is a
relative term that has meaning perhaps
only in Japan), not the more
well-known names to which we have
become accustomed. You could sense
that American collectors are
outgrowing the notion that all
Japanese ceramic art is made in the
Yanagi/Leach mingei mold. It was
refreshing and something that I hope
will continue into the future. The
Korean Craft Promotion Foundation
sponsored by the Korean government
exhibited 14 artists in a variety of
media and was an unexpected treat that
also challenged that same mingei
premise. Gee-Jo Lee’s architectural
sculpture was done in porcelain with a
clear glaze that not only transcended
both our notion about what Korean
porcelain should be, but also did not
succumb to the tendency that is often
present in porcelain sculpture to
appeal to collectors by focusing on
the beauty and preciousness of the
materials and the expense of
conceptual density. I have heard the
term “ceramic painting” used since I
first started studying ceramics in
1971. Hun-Chung Lee’s work has come
closest to that category that I have
seen. It succeeded in this, in large
part because he uses kiln shelves as
the canvas thereby eliminating the
handmade surface as part of the
equation. The result is that we are
forced to focus on the aspects his
“ceramic painting” that separate it
from conventional painting.
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Tsubusa Kato—NO. 14 OBJECT, 2006
H 34 x W 24 inches.
Presented with permission from Dai
Ichi Arts, Ltd. |
Galleries from the European Union
also presented a strong showing.
Galerie b15—Renate Wunderle from
Munich exhibited the ceramic
sculpture of nine European artists.
I am embarrassed to say that I had
never seen the figurative work of
the late Gertaud Mohwald. Her torsos
and busts were so full of emotion
and gravitas that I found it
difficult to be ambivalent and
unmoved. The work of these European
ceramics artists was a welcome
antidote to the frivolous tendencies
demonstrated in American ceramics.
Another aspect of SOFA was the
inclusion in all media of what we
now have come to think of as
historical pieces of modern crafts.
Joanna Bird from London, who
probably represented the pottery
genre the best, exhibited not only
contemporary works by artists like
Julian Stair, Svend Bayer and Edmund
de Waal, but also displayed works by
Cardew, Leach and Hamada. One
particularly interesting historical
piece was a small slipware covered
jar made by the young Hamada while
he was residing in St. Ives in the
1920’s. Moderne Gallery in
Philadelphia which primarily
exhibited vintage American craft
furniture also showed early pieces
by Ken Ferguson, Robert Turner and
Peter Voulkos. A piece I found
extremely interesting and unusual
was a small, square Voulkos slab
plate that was glazed in an
unremarkable clear glaze that
covered the outside edge of the
plate, but that left the inner part
of the plate raw, the sensitive
handling of the slab and the
counterpoint of warmth of the raw
clay with the cool wetness of the
glaze reminded me of some of the
early Noguchi plates made at
Rosanjin’s studio in Kamakura. The
gallery that had the strongest of
historical perspective however, was
Galerie Besson from London. Besson
focused Lucie Rie and Hans Coper and
exhibited their work with museum
like attention. Seeing lilies
displayed in deceptively simple
Lucie Rie vase seemed to make the
point that pottery can have all the
abstract, iconic and modernist
elements that modern sculpture
aspires to and yet maintain its
essential nature. I imagine that
there were critics who dismissed
this showing of Coper’s and Rie’s
work as purely historical. Yet it
did not seem to me historical at all
(even though intellectually I knew
of their already existing status in
the ceramics field), it seemed, in
fact, contemporary and alive. This
may partially be attributable to the
visually frenetic atmosphere at SOFA
where the examples of serious and
thoughtful ceramic work of a vessel
oriented nature were few and far
between. Whatever the case there is
no question that Coper’s and Rie’s
work will continue to be as relevant
and challenging in the future as it
was when it was made.
So is there a new trend in ceramics?
I would argue that there is the
beginning of one and that is that
the ceramics field is becoming more
eclectic and diverse. Fifteen years
ago, for example, the overwhelming
majority of galleries at SOFA were
American and they exhibited the
10-15 most well-known American
ceramicists at the time. SOFA then,
was in many ways very predictable,
whatever was on the pages of
American Craft or American Ceramics
was what we saw at SOFA. This
current diversification, however,
suggests to me that American
ceramics collectors are becoming
more sophisticated. They no longer
rely on a few publications as
arbiters of taste—to tell them what
is hot and what is not. American
collectors also are showing a
curiosity that has caused them look
beyond their own shores to Europe
and the Orient for work that
resonates to them personally.
Perhaps the real boundaries that
needed to be broken were of the
self-imposed taste and the
collective desire to be alike.
Whatever the case, I came away,
rather unexpectedly, feeling good to
have experienced the work I did at
SOFA and hopeful that this is only
the beginning of things to come.
Author Bio
not provided
SOFA 2006
WELCOME
