Provenance:
The Piras Collection, Italy
Maak Contemporary Ceramics, 18 May 2017, lot 75
One of the most celebrated aspects of Shimaoka's work was his use of the technique by which knotted ropes were rolled across the surface of the clay to create repeating pattern impressions. Filled with slip and the excess later scraped away, in the hands of a master it can creates intense spiralling patterns that delight the eye. In this plate, the ropework acts like a vortex, with the slowly turning herringbone pattern drawing us in and allowing the bright green, red and yellow enamels of the roundels to float, appartently just a hair's breadth above the surface of the dish
