WebinART: The Beauty of Use: Work by Yoshinori Hagiwara
Virtual event hosted by Pucker Gallery.
Join us 17 March 2023 at 10AM EST for a conversation on Pucker Gallery artist Yoshinori Hagiwara's new body of work, featuring Yoshinori, Professor of Museum Studies and Director of the Gordon L. Grosscup Museum, Andrew Maske, and Gallery Director Bernie Pucker, with the aid of friend and translator Mugi Hanao.
Yoshinori Hagiwara is the inheritor of the Mingei tradition, which began nearly 100 years ago in his village of Mashiko, Japan (home of the kiln of founder Shoji Hamada). Hamada’s commitment to Yo no bi, or “the beauty of use,” has informed and challenged successive generations of clay artists. First, Shimaoka Tatsuzo, next Matsuzaki Ken, and now Hagiwara Yoshinori.
Tradition continues to inform and be transformed by the next generation of makers. Yoshinori has infused pure delight and joy into his newest works.
The exhibition The Beauty of Use: Work by Yoshinori Hagiwara will be on view at Pucker Gallery from 11 March through 9 April 2023.
Yoshinori Hagiwara was born in 1974 as the fifth generation of the Hagiwara family ceramic workshop, and currently resides in Mashiko, Japan. He studied and researched at the Tochigi Prefectural Ceramics Instructional Institute, and his work has since been selected for inclusion, and has won numerous prizes, at the Japanese National Art Exhibition for multiple years. Hagiwara’s recent ceramics have broadened beyond his well-known persimmon glaze, and he has incorporated yellow kaki, blue nuka, and namijiro glaze into his artistic vocabulary. He has created his own expression through these glazes, and exhibits great control in creating elegant forms. In 2014, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry designated Hagiwara as a "Traditional Craftsman." His ceramics are included in significant public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Schein Joseph Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University in Alfred, New York and the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa, Israel. His work has been exhibited by Pucker Gallery since 2010.
Dr. Andrew Maske received his doctorate in Japanese Art History from Oxford University and a post-doctoral fellowship from Harvard University. As a curator of Japanese art at the Peabody Essex Museum between 1999 and 2005, he developed the exhibition Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile and served as editor and primary author of the critically acclaimed volume by the same name. This exhibition explored Japanese geisha both as the subject of artwork and as performing artists themselves from the eighteenth century to the present day. Dr. Maske also played a major role in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2003 catalogue, Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth Century Japan, which examined the revolution in Japanese aesthetics that began in the late sixteenth century. He has published articles and reviews in Archaeometry, Journal of Japanese Studies, Orientations, and Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.
During the seven years he lived in Japan, Dr. Maske studied numerous aspects of Japanese art and culture, practicing chanoyu (tea ceremony), Japanese dance, and music by way of the shamisen. In 2006-2007 he was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship to study the development of contemporary ceramics in China. He currently teaches Museum Studies at Wayne State University, concurrently serving as Director of the Gordon L. Grosscup Museum in the Department of Anthropology after 15 years of teaching Art History at the University of Kentucky.
Bernie Pucker is the director of Pucker Gallery, which he founded with his wife, Sue, on Newbury Street in Boston in 1967. Pucker Gallery represents over fifty artists from around the world, presenting approximately ten exhibitions annually, often paired with artist talks, virtual “WebinArts,” and other public events.
Bernie is currently a Board Member at the Japan Society, Boston, and the Jewish Publication Society. He also serves on the Leadership Council for Facing History and Ourselves, as well as the Artistic Advisory Board for the Terezin Music Foundation. Previously, he served as President of Solomon Schechter Day School; President of the Newbury Street League; and a Board Member for the Friends of Copley Square and The Unity Project, among others.
Bernie received his MA in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University and his BA in History and English Literature from Columbia College.