Contemporary Japanese Ceramics

Since our first visit to Japan together in 1986, we have enthusiastically visited many contemporary Japanese ceramic artists and actively collected their work.

Our passion for this incredible art form has been the focus of major exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Japan Society in New York (see below), at which time the work by these artists spurred a high level of interest by new collectors, the press, and other institutions in this country and Europe.

We have produced and coordinated four ceramic tours to Japan since 1989 on behalf of the Japan Society in New York City, and we have lectured on contemporary Japanese ceramics at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, New York's Japan Society, New York University, Colorado's Anderson Ranch Art Center, and Oregon's Portland Art Museum.

We first traveled together to Japan in 1986 to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Previously, Alice had attended Miyagi Gakuin high school in Sendai as an American Field Service exchange student and Waseda University in Tokyo as part of a junior year abroad program.

Currently, we are working on a book of ''conversations'' with contemporary Japanese ceramic artists to explore the special circumstances that have produced such an extraordinary body of work over the past 60 years. The first of these, "A Conversation with Fukami Sueharu" written with Louise Cort, appears in Fukami: Purity of Form edited by Andreas Marks (University of Washington Press, 2011), the catalogue for the exhibition on view March 25 to July 30, 2011, at the Clark Center for Japanese Art & Culture.

Professionally, we work together, assisting not-for-profit performing arts centers and theaters across the country with raising capital and operating funds, strengthening their boards of directors, and doing long-range planning.

We are both MBAs and, between us, have received the Distinguished Service Award from the North Carolina Association of Arts Councils, the Chairman's Award from Americans for The Arts and the Fan Taylor Award for outstanding service, creative thinking, leadership and significant impact on the profession of presenting the performing arts from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

Works from the Halsey and Alice North Collection have been exhibited in:

An Unspoken Dialogue with Japanese Tea
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Gallery 177
February 12, 2011 to September 23, 2012
The exhibition includes two ceramic works from the Collection of Halsey and Alice North:

Flower vase from the series Sound of the Core (Shin'in), 2004
by Kakurezaki Ryûichi (b. 1950)
Osafune, Okayama Prefecture
Stoneware
Gift from Halsey and Alice North to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2007
Large ceramic sculpture in ovoid vessel shape with geometric asymmetrical designs and tiered mouth

Three tiered box with oribe glaze (Oribe sandanjyu), ca. 1990
By Suzuki Goro (b. 1941)
Aichi Prefecture
Oribe glazed stoneware with gold lacquer ''repairs''
(note – the artist ''repairs'' are original and very important to the piece)
Tiers with whimsical designs of crows, lamps, nude women, geometric patterning, and black and green oribe glaze

Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse, William and Helen Pounds Curator of Japanese Art, Department of Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa said: "An Unspoken Dialogue with Japanese Tea has been organized to complement an exhibition and a series of programs focusing on the contemporary Japanese tea bowl to be held in the Boston community during spring 2011. Drawn from the extensive holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts' Morse Collection of Japanese Pottery and from several private collections, this show will explore the rich tradition of ceramics, lacquerware, and bamboo that have been made for the preparation and drinking of tea (chanoyu) from the sixteenth century to the present day."

CELEBRATING KYOTO:
Modern Arts from Boston's Sister City
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
December 10, 2008 to September 7, 2009
The exhibition featured 14 ceramic works from the Collection of Halsey and Alice North. Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse, William and Helen Pounds Curator of Japanese Art, Department of Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa said: ''Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston-Kyoto Sister City relationship at this vibrant exhibition focusing on contemporary ceramics and prints created by artists in Kyoto and the surrounding Kansai region. Included are ceramics on loan from private collections and ceramics and prints from the Museum's collection. In addition, contemporary textiles by four Kyoto artists illustrate the rich melding of traditional Japanese textile traditions with innovative processes and methods.''

CONTEMPORARY CLAY:
Japanese Ceramics for the New Century
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
October 7, 2005 to July 9, 2006
and
Japan Society Gallery, Japan Society
New York City
September 29, 2006 - January 21, 2007
The exhibition featured 103 ceramic works "which range from painstakingly crafted porcelains inspired by Chinese prototypes, through rough-hewn vessels that revel in the happy accidents of wood-fired kilns, to ironic objets that mimic newspapers, discarded trash and body parts. Largely drawn from the collection of New Yorkers Halsey and Alice North, the selection reflects their informed taste in its bias toward works made by artists based in Kyoto who challenge the traditional supremacy of utilitarian forms in respectful yet innovative, creative, and iconoclastic ways."
Joe Earle, Curator of the exhibition and, currently, Vice President, Japan Society and Director, Japan Society Gallery, New York (formerly, Matsutaro Shoriki Chair, Art of Asia, Oceania, & Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

101-page catalogue with 70 illustrations written by Joe Earle with Halsey and Alice North for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's CONTEMPORARY CLAY: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century exhibition. Available through MFA Publications, phone 617-369-3438, fax 617-369-3459.

Ceramics by (left to right): Kishi Eiko, Sakiyama Takayuki, and (top to bottom) Mishima Kimiyo, Takiguchi Kazuo, Kiyomizu Rokubey VII, and Matsuda Yuriko.

Ceramics by Fukami Sueharu.