$6,518
Masayuki Nagare (Japanese, b. 1923) Untitled Signed and dated "NAGARE 1979" on the interior. Black granite, 18 1/4 x 20 x 7 in. (46.4 x 50.8 x 17.8 cm). Condition: Minor chip to edge. Provenance: From the collection of Dr. Frank Stanton. N.B. Though Masayuki Nagare is an accomplished draftsman and ceramicist, he is best known for his sculptures in stone, primarily granite and marble. He first learned about stone while wandering among the ruins of air raid bombings in Japan, and in a gesture of respect for his ancestors, restoring grave markers to their original upright positions. (1) As a young man, he trained in the samurai way of life, practicing the martial arts, Shintoism and sword-smithing at the Ritsumeikan University. Nagare spent two years as a Zero fighter pilot for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II, returning to find that his family's home had been decimated by air attacks. (2) Nagare did not complete his formal samurai education, instead choosing to study under the avant-garde ceramicists Kazuo Yagi and Junkichi Kumakura. Nagare began to exhibit his ceramics and stone sculpture at Japanese galleries in the late 1950s (including a memorial show for American and Japanese pilots of WW II), and received recognition in the United States beginning in the early 1960s. Over the next decades, Nagare received numerous public and private commissions of monumental sculpture, including Cloud Fortress (1975), which was formerly installed at the New York W Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2008-09-12
