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Recent Acquisitions Releases Press Release Archive |
Quiet Beauty: Fifty Centuries of Japanese Folk Ceramics from the Montgomery Collection Continuing Exhibition and Free Showing Through July 18, 2004 Less than three weeks remain to experience the beauty of an extraordinary collection of Japanese ceramics never before exhibited in this part of the country. Quiet Beauty: Fifty Centuries of Japanese Folk Ceramics from the Montgomery Collection concludes its run at the Tyler Museum of Art on Sunday, July 18. The Museum is offering East Texans an opportunity to see the exhibition FREE OF CHARGE during a special showing Sunday, July 11 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Quiet Beauty explores the near-perfect combination of form, color, texture, gesture, and sense of spiritual harmony embodied in Japanese folk ceramics made between 3000 B.C. and 1985. Comprising one hundred ceramics spanning five thousand years of Japanese art and history, the exhibition presents a comprehensive survey of technical and artistic developments in folk art pottery. Included are prehistoric cooking beakers, wine jars, tomb vessels, grinding and mixing bowls, and storage jars. Also displayed are plates, dishes and bowls in stoneware and porcelain, sake bottles and sake flasks, oil-drip plates, sculptural alcove ornaments, and flower-arranging vases. Produced primarily as vernacular ceramics for use by farmers, artisans, and merchants, the objects in the exhibition are astonishing in their wide variety and profound aesthetic impact. Japan's ceramic history is one of the longest in the world. The earliest Jômon pottery dates back to 10,500 B.C., roughly 4000 years earlier than the oldest known pieces from Egypt or Mesopotamia, and as old as pieces found in China. Jeffrey Montgomery, from whose collection the pieces in Quiet Beauty are drawn, began collecting over 25 years ago and has carefully formed his collection on the ideas and aesthetics of the Mingei Movement. The Montgomery Collection is extraordinary in its scope and, while it is especially rich in ceramics, it includes examples of Japanese folk art in practically every medium to illustrate the breadth of utilitarian objects and to celebrate form as well as function. The Montgomery Collection is one of the most comprehensive collections of Japanese arts of daily life in the world, and is particularly significant for its high quality. A major catalogue accompanies the exhibition and is available for sale in the Museum's Gift Shop. In addition to individual entries and full-color illustrations of all objects in the exhibition, the publication includes a lengthy text by guest curator Robert Moes that traces the development of folk ceramics from prehistory to the present and discusses the primary characteristics of Japanese art. Tyler Museum of Art members enjoy unlimited free admission to the exhibition. Non-member admission prices are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $3 for children under 12. Admission fees to the exhibition will be waived on Sunday, July 11. The Tyler Museum of Art is located at 1300 South Mahon, off East Fifth Street one half mile west of ESE Loop 323. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. The Museum is closed Mondays. The Museum Café offers light lunches Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. The exhibition is organized and circulated by Art Services International of Alexandria, Virginia. The national tour has been sponsored by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Fund, the Mitsubishi International Corporation, and the Toshiba International Foundation. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. Major funding for the exhibition at the Tyler Museum of Art has been provided by Vernon and Amy Faulconer of Tyler. Additional support has been provided by the R. W. Fair Foundation. TMA Corporate Member Sponsors for the exhibition are Hibbs-Hallmark & Company and King Chevrolet Company of Tyler. |