SUMMARY

Modern Twist explores the evocative, sensual, and sculptural power of contemporary bamboo art.

Bamboo is a quintessential part of Japanese culture, shaping the country’s social, artistic, and spiritual landscape. Although bamboo is a prolific natural resource, it is a challenging artistic medium. There are fewer than 100 professional bamboo artists in Japan today. Mastering the art form requires decades of meticulous practice while learning how to harvest, split, and plait the bamboo. Modern Twist brings 38 exceptional works by 17 artists to U.S. audiences, displaying many of these technically innovative and imaginatively crafted works for the first time.

Since 1967, six bamboo artists have been named Living National Treasures. The Japanese government created this award after World War II in an effort to celebrate and preserve the nation’s traditions and culture. Only two living bamboo artists —Modern Twist’s Katsushiro Sōhō (2005) and Fujinuma Noboru (2012)—currently hold this title.

In addition, Modern Twist features works by other visionary artists: Matsumoto Hafū, Honma Hideaki, Ueno Masao, Uematsu Chikuyū, Nagakura Ken’ichi, Tanabe Chikuunsai III, Tanabe Yōta, Tanabe Shōchiku III, Tanioka Shigeo, Tanioka Aiko, Honda Shōryū, Mimura Chikuhō, Nakatomi Hajime, Sugiura Noriyoshi, and Yonezawa Jirō.

Modern Twist demonstrates that in the hands of master bamboo artists, a simple grass is transformed into a sculptural art. The exhibition celebrates these artists who have helped to redefine a traditional craft as a modern genre, inventing unexpected new forms and pushing the medium to groundbreaking levels of conceptual, technical, and artistic ingenuity.

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Andreas Marks, Director and Chief Curator of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, Hanford, California. The exhibition was generously supported by the E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. The catalogue was supported by the Nomura Foundation, Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, Eric and Karen Ende, Alexandra and Dennis Lenehan, Gilda and Henry Buchbinder, and the Snider Family Fund.

“Unlike the ceramist, for whom the fires of the kiln play an important role in the outcome, the bamboo artist bears full responsibility for every step of the creative process. Without splitting the bamboo and working through each of the various steps oneself, one cannot get the 'feel' of each individual bamboo culm and thus know for what kind of piece it will be best suited. And there are no shortcuts in bamboo—there is no way to mechanize the process.”

- Modern Twist artist and Living National Treasure Fujinuma Noboru, excerpt from Masters of Bamboo by Melissa Rinne

SPECIFICATIONS

TOUR SCHEDULE

Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA
November 13, 2012 - February 3, 2013

Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI
February 22, 2013 - June 1, 2013

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
June 22, 2013 - September 15, 2013

Kean University Art Galleries, Union, NJ
October 7, 2013 - February 7, 2014

Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
March 22, 2014 - June 15, 2014

Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL
January 31, 2015 - April 26, 2015

Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah, CA
May 30, 2015 - August 30, 2015

Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, CA
September 19, 2015 - January 3, 2016

PRESS

Evocative Japanese bamboo art at Bellevue Arts Museum
artdaily.com, November 13, 2012

Clark Center in Hanford to open “bamboo sculpture” exhibition, Jan 29-Mar 19
Cultural News, February 19, 2011

Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art
The Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, January 2011

Crow Collection of Asian Art Presents Bamboo Works from the Clark Center and the Art of Motoko Maio
artdaily.org, May 4, 2010