Vase in white porcelain, slip-cast and assembled from slabs, with incised surface decoration and an undulating enamel motif in varying shades of white.

Shigekazu Nagae, born in 1953 into a family of ceramic artists in Seto, is recognised as one of the most influential Japanese porcelain artists of his generation, particularly for his innovative approach to sculptural porcelain.

Introduced to ceramics from an early age, he completed his studies at the Seto ceramics technical school in 1974 and began attracting attention in the late 1970s for his experiments with porcelain slip casting.

Nagae appropriated slip casting, a process traditionally associated with serial production, and used it to create delicate curved forms that challenge the technical limits of porcelain.

Works such as this vase begin with rectangular sections cast in porcelain slip. After drying and an initial firing, the components are assembled, the joints being fused through the application of glaze.

He subsequently developed increasingly abstract forms using related techniques, suspending thin porcelain elements in the kiln with rigid wires so that heat and gravity participate in shaping the final work.

Nagae’s Moving Forms series exemplifies his sustained exploration of porcelain through continuous lines and undulating surfaces, producing abstract forms that often suggest hills, rivers or wind.

His work has received numerous awards and has entered major international collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Musée national de Céramique, Sèvres; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Signed in underglaze blue on the underside.
Signed tomobako.
H. 31 cm; 40 × 31 cm.