Itō Kōshō 伊藤公象 (1932-2024), ovoid vase with cracked silver surface, Japan, 20th century

Ovoid vase, resting on a slightly triangular base, with a short, constricted neck. The shape is understated, but the surface gives it all its singularity. It is covered with a dense network of cracks, folds, and retractions that evoke a material caught in a state of contraction. The silvery-gray, metallic appearance distances this work from the idea of a simple decorative glaze. The surface appears to be born of a physical phenomenon, like a mineral or frozen skin. The vase comes with its inscribed and signed tomobako.

This piece is very representative of Itō Kōshō's research into the transformations of clay. Japanese museum sources recall that he integrated freezing, shrinkage, cracking, and contraction of the material into his work, not as accidents, but as the very principle of creation. His work thus lies at the border of ceramics and sculpture.

Itō Kōshō created many large-format works, as well as important installations. This vase is therefore particularly interesting because it concentrates, in a small, enclosed volume, research that is often associated with monumental pieces or sculptural ensembles in his work. Here, the form of the vase remains, but the true subject becomes the surface, with its tensions, cracks, and material effects.

Born in 1932 in Kanazawa, Itō Kōshō is one of the great pioneers of post-war Japanese ceramic sculpture. He trained at a very young age with Nakamura Suikō, then developed a very personal language centered on the physical reactions of clay, and pursued an international career, notably marked by a gold medal at the Triennale India in 1978 and by his participation in the Venice Biennale in 1984. He died in 2024.

His works are preserved in several important public collections in Japan, notably at the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Utsunomiya Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Art, Osaka. A piece by Itō Kōshō is also preserved at the Sèvres Museum in France.

This vase clearly shows what makes Itō Kōshō unique: making the clay itself, its physical reactions, and its metamorphoses, the center of the work.

Dimensions: 26 × 18 cm.