Over ten years in the making, Joan Mirviss Ltd presents “Birds of Dawn: Pioneers of Japan’s Sōdeisha Ceramic Movement,” which opens on March 16, 2011, at 39 East 78th Street in New York. This exhibition, which coincides with Asia Week New York, will focus on three seminal founders of this extremely influential movement: Yagi Kazuo (1918-79), Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001), and Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001). More than sixty works by this Kyoto triumvirate will be on view and offered for sale.
"With their non-traditional avant-garde approach favoring sculptural ceramics, the art of Suzuki Osamu, Yagi Kazuo, and Yamada Hikaru has always captivated me,” said Mirviss, who marks her thirty-fifth year as a specialist in the world of Japanese art. “About ten years ago, I started to think about the viability of an exhibition in New York that would include some of their important works,” she added. “Nothing like this has ever been staged anywhere– including Japan.” According to Mirviss, acquiring a significant body of major work by these celebrated masters was a task that required over two decades of networking in Japan.
Following on the heels of WWII, with scant resources available, these artists joined together to establish their own exhibition systems that gave them both freedom and a vehicle for artistic dialogue. They drew their name, Sôdeisha, literally, “Crawling Through Mud Association,” derived from a Chinese ceramic glazing term, to express their complete absorption with their medium and its inherent limitations.
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