Ryoji koie biography template
Ryoji Koie
RYOJI KOJE who was born in Tokoname Japan in Tokoname is a traditional pottery area - one of the Six Ancient Kilns of Japan, with more than 1, years of ceramic heritage – and Ryoji lived there much of his life. From the age of 10 Koie, who was born into a non-potting family, worked as a labourer in a drainage pipe factory, then as a tile maker at another.
At 16, he began producing his own pots, before training at the Tokoname Municipal Ceramics Research Institute.
Noted as a ceaseless experimenter he was thoroughly conversant with every precept in the traditional Japanese book of ceramic rules and pushed every one of them as far as was possible and often thoroughly debilitated them.
His was an exuberant personality and he lived his life to the full resulting in a reputation as something of a ‘wild man’. But those who knew him claimed it was simply an impatient lust for life that meant there was much he chose not to be concerned with. He attracted many followers and his extended household and studio seemed always able to accommodate yet another.
It was not only Japan but from many countries came his followers and he welcomed all. He did not teach but simply made and they learned and taught others and many today make Koie-like works unintentionally.
His spirit remains in numerous works in many countries.
He originally learned his ceramics at high school then in entered the Tokoname Ceramic Art Institute and the following year won the principal award at the Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition. He thought at the time that it was strange. “I did not expect it to be so easy“, yet he was already starting to become disillusioned with the way the Japanese ceramic world was structured and thus began his rebellious path.
He set up his first studio and proceeded to make work in several genres from tableware in many styles – white works, hikidashi-guro (black), sometsuke (overglazed porcelain), yakishime and oribe through to trail-blazing sculptural expression like the singular series made, at different times, in tribute to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chernobyl and 9/11 where partial decomposition and disintegration was an element of the planned outcome from the firing part of the process.
He deliberately did not court skill saying that what was more important was what else was present in the work. “The highly skilled I am sorry for – there is no meaning in just creating something.
Biography template free He handles it with a naturalness and playfulness which almost belies his skill and knowledge but which produces work of great freshness, sensuality and vigour. One acknowledged huge influence was the revolutionary, s Sodeisha artists in Kyoto, in particular Yagi and Yamada. At this moment, it seems the world lives in a state of uncertainty. Marketing Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.Those with only skill don’t convey feelings in their work.” His work could be provocative, boisterous and intense yet always with a sense of freedom and humanity, from his large installations to small sake cups.
One acknowledged huge influence was the revolutionary, s Sodeisha artists in Kyoto, in particular Yagi and Yamada.
Yet he also said “Everything is my teacher” and wrote that his influences included: “My mother, Yami’s death and my father. My grandparents’ stories of their travels. The Tomimoto family and music. Fishermen and sea, wind, sun. A slope, the shadow of an overpass. Pottery fragments, the remains of fires, spirits.
Ryoji koie biography template Fishermen and sea, wind, sun. Ryoji Koie. Work of the artist:. Kohiki -glazed water jar with calligraphic decoration in iron glaze and a fitted black lacquer lid ca.I can’t write the names of drinking establishments – there is perhaps much one cannot write that has been a teacher or anti-teacher. Shitara’s water and cold wind. Various people. My first wife, Yoshiko.”
The Koie style made its major debut in , at his first exhibition of that year, RETURN TO EARTH. Koie had been scheduled to show at an outdoor exhibition at the Modern Art Museum in Nagoya, but the event had to be cancelled due to political interference.
Koie, beside himself with anger, showed up at the exhibition site anyway, and created a work there, alone.
Biography template for professionals: From the age of 10 Koie, who was born into a non-potting family, worked as a labourer in a drainage pipe factory, then as a tile maker at another. Kohiki -glazed water jar with calligraphic decoration in iron glaze and a fitted black lacquer lid ca. He handles it with a naturalness and playfulness which almost belies his skill and knowledge but which produces work of great freshness, sensuality and vigour. One form he favoured was a thrown cylinder with its base removed, sliced vertically then laid open, turning the inside — the usually unseen inner walls — into the outside.
For this work, he took the powder of pulverized sanitation equipment (toilet bowls and basins) and formed a series of mounds, then placed on top of each an impression of his face, moulded by means of a mask, which was seen to gradually decompose, from mound to mound, until finally consumed in the final mounds.
This series shocked the art world but many came to see Koie as a great artist who questioned existing beliefs and one who made tremendous discoveries within the stuffy, tradition-bound Japanese ceramic art world of the time.
His main questions back then were, “Who am I? What is living? What is dying?” And he answered “It’s how we live.”
He travelled to many countries exhibiting, giving demonstrations and talking about life and work – for him the two were inextricably mixed and his outgoing personality left an indelible impression wherever he went.
His visit, as a guest artist to the first Gulgong Festival back in the s was unforgettable for those who were there and they recall events with a wide smile. He returned to Tokonome to build a 20 metre long anagama kiln deliberately designed to fire very unevenly.
He won honours at the prestigious Vallauris Ceramics exhibition in and in was invited into the then influential International Academy of Ceramics.
Ryoji koie biography template pdf The glaze is applied in a way that makes it leap across the pots capturing the spirit of the title. Work of the artist:. He won honours at the prestigious Vallauris Ceramics exhibition in and in was invited into the then influential International Academy of Ceramics. This series shocked the art world but many came to see Koie as a great artist who questioned existing beliefs and one who made tremendous discoveries within the stuffy, tradition-bound Japanese ceramic art world of the time.In he became Professor of the Aichi Prefecture University of Fine Arts and in he was gifted the esteemed, Japan Ceramic Society Award. His work can be found in major museums and galleries around the world from the Smithsonian in Washington to the V+A in London, the Metropolitan in NYC and the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne as well as every significant museum in Japan and Korea.
So when you observe and enjoy work that appears robust and spontaneous, or distorted as though still spinning, or with broken-bread textures and consciously gestural applications of lips, handles and lugs, or gritty, undomesticated surfaces and forms that have moved beyond utility, then think about one of the originators and certainly a master, Ryoji Koie.
Koie found fame through the unconventional energy of his pottery and performances, he passed away in the summer pf at the age of
Images: Ryoji Koie, portrait; portrait (photo Michael Harvey for Apollo Magazine); vase, height 17,2 cm (source MAAK London); large Oribe Tsubo, height 28,8 cm (source MAAK London); teabowl, height 8,8, cm, ca.
(source MAAK London).