This exhibition comprises six thematic groupings of important works created over the course of the past eight decades by some of Japan’s most important artists. Together, these pieces provide a survey of 20th- and 21st-century Japanese master ceramicists, the breadth of whose work is highlighted by the range of differing shapes, glazes, and surface treatments on view.
All the works are drawn from the collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz, who have the largest and most important encyclopedic collection of modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics in private hands. Their collection functions as a type of “lending library,” with active loan arrangements with many U.S. museums and up to three traveling exhibitions on the road at any given moment. The Horvitzes have been instrumental in exposing Japanese ceramics to a much wider audience through their loans and gifts of works of art as well as their support of contemporary Japanese artists outside of their home country.
Hands & Earth is made possible, in part, by the generous support of the Cowles Charitable Trust and The Jeffrey Horvitz Foundation.
Photo by Tomas Svab, courtesy of Joan B. Mirviss.