Peace Score (Heiwa no fu)
Iizuka Shōkansai Japanese
Not on view
Iizuka Shōkansai is a master bamboo artist, designated a Living National Treasure in Japan. Son of the famous bamboo artist Iizuka Rōkansai (1890–1958), he first studied oil painting before becoming a student of his father and a participant in the established lineage of Kantō (eastern Japan) craftsmen. Having mastered classic methods of plaiting, he produced bamboo baskets and other functional works of art in traditional shapes and styles using combinations of bamboo, rattan, and lacquer, but during the 1960s he also produced experimental pieces inspired by abstract painting. This particular work takes the form of two flat, framed panels appropriate for hanging. Created from timber bamboo (madake), rattan, and a metal background, its primary component is lengths of split, pliable bamboo worked in bundled plaiting (tabane-ami). The dynamic, abstract composition displays the tensile strength of the material. The occasionally interlaced bundles of bamboo form graceful, curvilinear patterns held in place against the metal background by thin pieces of rattan.
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