Sagawa Art Museum Raku Kichizaemon Kan - Raku Kichizaemon PavilionIt is an architecturally unique museum with the underground galleries constructed under the water garden on ground level where the tea room structure is built to resemble a floating isle.
The whole design was produced by Raku Kichizaemon XV based on the concept of “shu-ha-ri, literally “obeying-breaking-leaving”, one of the most famous teachings expressed by Sen Rikyû on rules and manners - obey them to the limit (shu), break them (ha), even leave them (ri), but never forget their fundamentals (hon). The collection consists of works produced by the current generation since the year 2000 including black Raku tea bowls, yakinuki type black tea bowls, tea caddies, fresh water jars, etc. Works by Raku Kichizaemon XV are continually updated.
Between 2007 and 2010, Raku Kichizaemon spent four summers in Loubignac in the Corrège region of south-western France. While he was there he made a wide range of ceramics including tea bowls, flower vases and freshwater jars. The exhibition, INSPIRATION - Made in France: Tea Bowls by Raku Kichizaemon (March-August 2010), featured a selection of tea bowls made by Kichizaemon during his time in France. In this the third KICHIZAEMON X exhibition, the focus is on flower vases and freshwater jars. These are accompanied by a selection of drawings by the Paris-based artist Bruno Mathon. Mathon’s work has always had a distinctly contemplative quality. At first his concerns were symbolism and figuration. As his interests began to turn towards abstraction, which he explored through the medium of drawing, his work became increasingly quiet and meditative. His deepening engagement with philosophy and his pursuit of abstraction have been paralleled by an ever greater purity in the lines, planes and dots with which he creates a unique pictorial world that probes into questions about existence and the universe. Although Mathon and Raku work in completely different media, there are strong resonances and commonalities between what they do. In the case of this exhibition, France as a shared locus of activity serves as a further bond between the two artists. Raku made his Loubignac ceramics from a variety of materials sourced locally or from other parts of Europe – white clay from Limoges, for example, red clay dug from the hills of Loubignac, and black clay from Spain. As well as working with new materials, Raku also experimented with new techniques such as paddle-forming with length of woods. Using this technique he developed a new and powerfully sculptural approach to making. The paddle traces on the surfaces of his purposely distorted shapes have the effect of re-energising the clay, the finished vessels appearing to be less flower vases than exercises in abstraction. We hope that through this exhibition visitors will be able to experience the magic that Raku Kichizaemon succeeded in invoking while away from Kyoto and presented with the challenge of using new clays, glazes and methods of firing. We also hope that through the parallel showing of Bruno Mathon’s drawings, visitors will discover and enjoy the synergies and resonances to be found between the work of these two artists.
For further information please consult the Sagawa Art Museum website.
RAKU WARE | Sagawa Art Museum Raku Kichizaemon Kan - Raku Kichizaemon Pavilion
