Passing Of Gerd Knapper

[Lee]

Toomo Hamada announced the passing of Gerd Knapper on Facebook today:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=475122705894762

See Swanica Lictenberg's blog posts about the 2006 Workshop I hosted
in Mashiko, including a visit to Knapper's studio:

http://swanceramics.com/2006/07/10/on-sunday-we-visited-gerd-knapper-a-potter-cer/

Knapper's home page:

http://www.gerdknapper.com/

Swanica wrote:

Gerd Knapper’s prides include his family, house ceramics, sculptures
and commissions. His ceramics are scattered in museums and houses all
over the world.

He has been living in Mashiko for 6 years as the first foreigner
potter before establishing himself in Daigo for 31 years by building
his own kiln. He has been strongly influenced by the country and in
turn strongly influences pottery in Japan. He has succeeded in
combining the Japanese style with the technical expertise brought to
Japan from his native Germany.
Knapper has done what no western ceramist had accomplished before him.
He not only won both the prestigious “Minister of Education Award” and
the no less prestigious “Prime Minister’s Award”, but he followed his
distinctly individual vision and still was enormously successful with
the Japanese public.

Artists Statement from his webpage:

Autobiographical statement

Often I am asked why I have chosen Japan as my second home country.
[Gerd is a native of Germany.] In my answers I always refer to the
significant and long tradition of Japanese Ceramic art concluding that
this is what attracted me to Japan and still, after 29 years, is
holding me in its spell.

In September, 1969 I decided, in spite of warnings from many
people, to continue my studies of Mashiko ceramics under the roof of
the workshop I had erected. The dream of working as an equal among
young, aspiring colleagues was thus fulfilled. It was in pursuance of
this dream that I had returned to Mashiko. A number of friends and
acquaintances as well as the solicitous recommendations of the great
masters of Mashiko made it possible for me to get all necessary
materials. There was also an abundance of technical information to be
had among many students and kiln owners of my age who were in the
process of developing themselves.

My original plan was to stay for two years in Mashiko and to
decide on a further course after that. But the Minister of Education
Award which I received in June 1971, changed my plan and I decided to
stay in Mashiko to meet the challenge. I started to construct a bigger
workshop with two kilns and to organize shows of my works in Tokyo and
other cities.

The founding of my family and the prospect of growing children
compelled me to look for a more spacious house and working place. Just
prior to a planned four months exhibition trip to Germany with the
whole family, a friend from Daigo told me about a big manor house
which had been vacant for some years. Because of my special interest
in wooden architecture farmhouses, I asked this friend to show me the
house.

I found it hard to believe this dilapidated structure, and
overgrown ground to have been the former village chieftain’s. The
manor house was completely without life and gave a frighteningly
desolate impression. At first I had a bad feeling when I entered the
house. No human being had lived there for five to ten years, but I
thought that it might be possible to save this imposing beam structure
and to create a fancy living space and a place for my work in this
estate.

During our extensive trip in Germany we had opportunities to look
at some vacant farmhouses for sale, but the overwhelming impression of
the manor house of Tarosaka would not leave me. In October 1974 I
finally became the happy owner of the dilapidated Tarosaka estate.
With an area of 4300 Square meters, I now had enough space for as many
kilns as I liked to build, for growing vegetables, as well as for a
big storage area for wood fuel.

After 27 years in Daigo. My wife and I feel as if we were raised
at Tarosaka. Coming back from long journeys abroad or within the
country I always look forward to returning to the tranquility of my
home.

My work is inspired by primitive and modern art of various
cultures. I don’t consider myself a Japanese artist nor a German
artist. Based on my unique position, my work inherits an independent
structure with elements of the East and of the West.


--
--
Lee 李 Love in Longfellow,Minneapolis, MN USA

"Ta tIr na n-óg ar chul an tI—tIr dlainn trina chéile"—that is, "The
land of eternal youth is behind the house, a beautiful land fluent
within itself." -- John O'Donohue