On View
Not on viewObject number2021.1
Sō (Blue) D-3
Artist
Matsutani Fumio
(Japanese, 1975)
Date2020
Mediumstoneware
DimensionsObject: 14 13/16 × 14 3/8 × 9 5/16 in. (37.6 × 36.6 × 23.6 cm)
Credit LineJoy Light East Asian Art Acquisition and Exhibition Fund
Exhibition History"Sugoi! 200 Years of Japanese Art," KIA, Galleries 2 & 5 (May 13, 2023 - September 24, 2023)Label TextMatsutani Fumio graduated from the Kyoto Saga University of Arts in 2003 and directly thereafter began several years of apprenticeship with Imai Masayuki and his son Makimasa. Matsutani is an artist interested in both form and function. Some of the artist’s works are utilitarian forms that can be used daily, others are explorations of color and form, as in Sou D-3. Matsutani’s process is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. The artist fires his forms over several months and applies at least five layers of glaze prior to incising lines by hand into the blue and white glazed surface. The exterior surface that Matsutani created has a glittering and velvety texture.
The angular, yet delicately balanced form of Sou D-3 is characteristic of Matsutani’s "Sou" series. In fact, the work gives the appearance of a bird or butterfly’s impending flight. However, the artist extends his practice into the Western art historical canon by alluding to Yves Klein’s famous explorations of the color blue (Yves Klein Blue). Within this work, and the series itself, balance, depth, height, scale, and texture are key elements within Matsutani’s own examinations of the ability of color to convey form. [Label for “Sugoi! 200 Years of Japanese Art", 2023]
