chawan tea bowls exhibition at MAK, vienna

chawan tea bowls MAK, vienna on now until march 28th, 2010

the tea bowl, known as ‘chawan’ in japanese, is the focus of this exhibition in MAK’s permanent collection asia. although being simple items of use, chawan were made into sculptural works of art whose designs expressed the cultivated relationship people had with the object. no one bowl matches another, each one unique. they even bear their own name and the name of the artist, so that is known who has created it over the course of time. on show are more than one hundred tea bowls crafted between the eighth century to the present. the selection expresses the various styles and ancient teabowl production techniques along with the development of the new bowl variants of today.

tea bowl (chawan) with ground mark ‘seiki’ painted on the brick-red clay with white frosting (aka raku ware) japan, kyoto, edo period (1603-1868), circa 1800 height: 8 cm, diameter: 11.7 cm inventory: ke 09421 © MAK

tea bowl with goldlackrestaurierung (yobitsugi) karatsu-yaki, japan, at 1570-1620 6.5 cm x 11.5 cm private collection © MAK

tea bowl with schwarzlackrestaurierung korea, 16 jh inventory: or 935 © MAK