vase | Spencer Museum of Art

Onodera Gen, artist

1934–2016

vase, 1991

Where object was made: Japan

Material/technique: stoneware; slip

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 384 x 241 mm
Weight (Weight): 15 lbs

Credit line: Museum purchase

Accession number: 1991.0052

On display: Lee Study Center

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

Form & Flux: Contemporary East Asian Ceramics and Surface Stories

Onodera Gen seeks a quiet, natural beauty—one that reveals itself gradually. Fascinated by clay’s origins, he travels Japan to dig his own and study its geological formation. Visitors describe his studio as a geological lab, filled with labeled rocks. His forms are simple, even austere. In this vase, he inlaid white and gray clays into incised grass-like lines, then added vertical cuts, partially erased, creating a subtle, layered surface that rewards close, patient viewing.

Exhibition Label:
"Contemporary Ceramics East and West," Feb-2002, Susan Earle, Mary M. Dusenbury
Onodera Gen has stated that he strives to achieve a natural, subtle beauty, a beauty that does not dramatically impose itself, but one that slowly comes forth over time. Deeply interested in the clay itself, he has travelled around the country to dig his own clay and has studied the geological formation of various clays. Visitors to his studio have said that it looks like a geological laboratory, with labeled rocks covering every inch of unused space. Onodera’s shapes are simple, even severe. Here he has incised curved lines in the shape of grasses into the gray-brown clay of the vase and then inlaid white and gray clays in the lines. When the inlay was complete, he incised vertical lines over the entire vase, partially rubbing them out in order to make the design more subdued.