Kuriki Tatsusuke
Publisher: The National Museum of Modern Art
Published: 2015
Description: In addition to presenting numerous exhibitions on modern and contemporary art, the National
Museums of Modern Art in Kyoto and Tokyo have consistently focused on the history of
and new trends in crafts.
In this exhibition, we introduce the work of Kuriki Tatsusuke, who was widely acclaimed in
the world of ceramics for discovering ways of helping vessels survive in a contemporary framework
and for boldly challenging various forms and designs.
Kuriki was born Seto, Aichi Prefecture in 1943. He enrolled in Kyoto City University of Arts
in 1962, studying with Tomimoto Kenkichi, Kondo Yuzo, Fujimoto Yoshimichi, and Kiyomizu
Hiroshi. As Tomimoto’s last student, Kuriki was particularly influenced by the artist. After graduating
from the school, Kuriki returned to Seto and began making ceramics. Primarily showing work
that he made by hand (rather than on a wheel), Kuriki won the grand prize in the Asahi Ceramic Art
Exhibition on three separate occasions. He was also awarded prizes in many other public exhibitions
including the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (Nitten), and received widespread recognition at a young
age. As he was trained by ceramic artists, Kuriki rejected the use of cracks and formal distortions. In
addition to improving his materials and kiln, and devising forms filled with protrusions and depressions
in pieces such as Work in White and Silver (1974), he indicated a new direction in ceramic art.
Kuriki also incorporated the unavoidable element of chance inherent in firing clay, and produced intelligent
and highly accomplished works with an excellent technique and astute sensibility. In 1983,
he returned to Kyoto City University of Arts to teach, and became a professor at the school in 1993,
energetically working to foster a new generation. Known for an extensive range of activities beginning
with his first solo exhibition in 1980, the artist’s sudden death in 2013 was greatly lamented.
In this exhibition, we examine the trajectory of Kuriki’s practice, his approach to production,
and his works as well as considering postwar avant-garde and contemporary ceramics in Japan.
In closing, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the artist’s bereaved family, the
collectors and museums who agreed to loan us important works, and the many others who assisted
us in realizing this exhibition.