Under the Hammer

Form, Color, Texture: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics

Leading our Fine Japanese and Korean Works of Art auction during Asia Week New York is a selection of 38 lots from a private collection of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese ceramics, paintings, and textiles.

This exceptional collection is highlighted by a selection of contemporary ceramics by an array of well-established and emerging artists.

Read on as Joe Earle, Bonhams Senior Consultant in Japanese Works of Art, shares his favorite contemporary ceramics coming under the hammer on 22 March.

Lot 808

Fukami Sueharu, Distant View II, 1992

Lot 808. Fukami Sueharu, Distant View II, 1992. Estimate $70,000-100,000

Lot 808. Fukami Sueharu, Distant View II, 1992. Estimate $70,000-100,000

Lot 808. Fukami Sueharu, Distant View II, 1992. Estimate $70,000-100,000

Ceramic superstar Fukami Sueharu's large-scale porcelain sculptures are sought by collectors across the world. His appeal is truly transcultural, combining a commitment to artistic and technical innovation with a traditional Japanese disregard for the time, risk, and effort required to produce works of flawless beauty.

His contemporary forms are finished with a signature seihakuji glaze, a technique perfected in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Distant View II is a soaring, six-foot tall example by the renowned artist.

Lot 956

Konno Tomoko, Sprout, 2018

Lot 956. Konno Tomoko, Sprout, 2018. Estimate $5,000 - 6,000

Lot 956. Konno Tomoko, Sprout, 2018. Estimate $5,000 - 6,000

Lot 956. Konno Tomoko, Sprout, 2018. Estimate $5,000 - 6,000

From 2012 to 2015, Konno Tomoko lived and worked in Bali where she was inspired to start hand-building organic, otherworldly forms out of marbleized, multicolored porcelain clay.

In Sprout, she creates a maverick world that that is both colorful and grotesque, inspiring conflicting feelings of aesthetic delight and existential dread.

Lot 832

Baba Yasutaka, Elemental Form IX, 2019

Lot 832. Baba Yasutaka, Elemental Form IX, 2019. Estimate $6,000-8,000

Lot 832. Baba Yasutaka, Elemental Form IX, 2019. Estimate $6,000-8,000

Lot 832. Baba Yasutaka, Elemental Form IX, 2019. Estimate $6,000-8,000

Baba Yasutaka’s studio is specially humidified to slow the drying process of his painstaking ceramic sculptures. His vertiginous, skyscraper-like sculptures are built from thousands of tiny stencil-cut porcelain blocks of differing sizing.

The resulting creations, called “Elemental Forms”, are devoid of any function, embracing abstraction and cementing the artist as one of the most fearless new arrivals on the Japanese ceramic scene.

Lot 819

Hosono Hitomi, Zelkova and Dahlia Bowl, 2017

Lot 819. Hosono Hitomi, Zelkova and Dahlia Bowl, 2017. Estimate $15,000 - 20,000

Lot 819. Hosono Hitomi, Zelkova and Dahlia Bowl, 2017. Estimate $15,000 - 20,000

Lot 819. Hosono Hitomi, Zelkova and Dahlia Bowl, 2017. Estimate $15,000 - 20,000

Trained in Japan, Denmark and England, London-based Hosono Hitomi has developed her own unique Wedgwood-inspired practice, inspired by botanical studies and landscapes in Japan and east London.

To create her intricate vessels, Hosono creates molds of plant forms, applying them to a pre-thrown porcelain vessel until the underlying surface is entirely hidden. Her compelling fusion of diverse ceramic traditions earned her the inaugural Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Prize, and a worldwide audience.

Lot 811

Moriyama Kanjirō, Turn, 2015

Lot 811. Moriyama Kanjirō, Turn, 2015. Estimate $6,000 - 8,000

Lot 811. Moriyama Kanjirō, Turn, 2015. Estimate $6,000 - 8,000

Lot 811. Moriyama Kanjirō, Turn, 2015. Estimate $6,000 - 8,000

Moriyama Kanjirō adapts traditional technologies to create swirling, dynamic sculptures. He assembles large, wheel-thrown forms, cutting them while still wet before joining them in a final high-temperature firing.

In 2007, at age 23, Moriyama received the Grand Prize at the Asahi Ceramics Exhibition, making him the youngest recipient ever. His works can be found in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Lot 802

Kishi Eiko, Imaginary Landscape
# 12, 2012

Lot 802. Kishi Eiko, Imaginary Landscape #12, 2012. Estimate $15,000 - 20,000

Lot 802. Kishi Eiko, Imaginary Landscape #12, 2012. Estimate $15,000 - 20,000

Lot 802. Kishi Eiko, Imaginary Landscape #12, 2012. Estimate $15,000 - 20,000

Kishi Eiko has established a global reputation with her architectural, linear sculptures, hand-built out of more than a dozen multicolored clays and carved with thousands of small depressions that she inlays with colored slip before glazing and firing.

Kishi’s works have been exhibited extensively, from the Minneapolis Museum of Art to the International Ceramic Museum in Italy, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among others.

Lot 833

Hattori Makiko, Release, 2016

Lot 833. Hattori Makiko, Release, 2016. Estimate $12,000 - 15,000

Lot 833. Hattori Makiko, Release, 2016. Estimate $12,000 - 15,000

Lot 833. Hattori Makiko, Release, 2016. Estimate $12,000 - 15,000

Hattori Makiko does not follow a predetermined design. Instead, she adopts a meditative process, applying tens of thousands of paper-thin, frilly clay shavings to her sculptural forms until their entire surface is covered—inside and out.

The result is not only a miracle of technique and a delight to the eye, but also the record of a creative process that is akin to the work of a performance artist. Hattori’s works are so intricately designed that only about half a dozen can be created each year. The clay is so densely placed that each vessel can take up to six months to dry.

Lot 803

Imada Yōko, Purity, 2016

Lot 803. Imada Yōko, Purity, 2016. Estimate $2,500 - 4,000

Lot 803. Imada Yōko, Purity, 2016. Estimate $2,500 - 4,000

Lot 803. Imada Yōko, Purity, 2016. Estimate $2,500 - 4,000

Imada Yōko reverses standard porcelain techniques by brushing cobalt blue over a thinly potted, shaved, and carved bowl that has already been glazed, then firing the piece a second time.

Combined with her flamboyant painting style, this unique method gives her works a refreshing and distinct appearance.