Product Description
Keizo Kitajima, “New York” 1982
KEIZO KITAJIMA (1954-) Tokyo, Japan
“New York” 1982
Inscribed by the photographer in Japanese.
Published by Byakuya, Tokyo.
Dimensions:
Book: H: 12” x W: 8 5/8”
Custom leather box: H: 13 5/8” x W: 9 3/4” x D: 1 7/8”
Custom cloth case: H: 14 11/16” x W: 10 7/16” x D: 2 9/16”
These days, the Japanese photographer Keizo Kitajima, born in 1954, lives in Tokyo and specializes in urban photography. But in 1981, he spent about six months in New York, hanging out in New Wave clubs or roaming the streets, taking pictures — often by simply pointing and shooting. More than three dozen of these gritty black-and-white images form his robust New York gallery debut. The lush blacks of Mr. Kitajima’s images, which were initially published in a book and only recently printed, bring to mind his friend and mentor Daido Moriyama. But Mr. Kitajima’s aesthetic, at least here, is all about round edges and people who are anything but average. Some are hard-working immigrants whose faces loomed close to Mr. Kitajima’s lens as they hurried along the street. Others are celebrities (Mick Jagger) or soon-to-be celebrities (the young Madonna, when her face still had pores), drag queens or denizens of the Mudd Club or CBGB’s. Some are simply people waiting for something to happen, like the rogues’ gallery of five men behind a police barrier on Fifth Avenue.
Keizo Kitajima, “New York” 1982
HULDA ROTIER FISCHER (1893 – 1982) Milwaukee, WI
Three-resting giraffes sculpture 1936
Handbuilt earthenware sculpture with a golden light brown glaze.
Marks: Hulda Rotier Fischer 36 (hand incised)
H: 6 1/2″ x W: 7″ x D: 5 1/2″
Price: $2,300
Hulda Rotier Fisched studied at the Milwaukee Normal School and was a student of Robert von Neumann Sr. In 1921 she also studied with Carl Holty. She worked as an Art Instructor at Shorewood Opportunity School for 30 years. Rotier Fischer was a Member of the Milwaukee Art institute.
She is the recipient of many Milwaukeee Journal Awards.
ROSE CABAT (1914-2015) USA
Rare and important large scale “Feelie” c. 1980-85
Thin walled porcelain vessel with a silky satiny matte drip glaze
Signed: incised CABAT on bottom
For more information on Rose Cabat see: Rose Erni Cabat Retrospective 1936-1986 (Tuscon, AZ: Tuscon Museum of Art, 1986)
H: 3 5/8″
Price: $1,650
Rose Cabat was an American studio ceramicist living in Tucson. Considered one of the most important ceramic artists of the Mid-century Modernist movement, Cabat is best known for her innovative glazes on small porcelain pots called “feelies” which she developed in the 1960s. Her organic forms often resemble the shape of onions and figs, and her glazes range from organic to jewel tones. Cabat was born in 1914 in the Bronx, New York, began to work in ceramics in the late 1930′s, and moved to Arizona in 1942, where she continued to make innovative ceramics.
Feelies:
Feelies are described as onion, fig, cucumber, and saucer-shaped ceramic vases terminating in an upward closed neck. Bruce Block, an avid collector, has described them as sensual and tactile with a very specific unforgettable texture, spiritual seeming to contain a type of energy. Rose Cabat had developed a silky satiny glaze, and it wasn’t until around 1960 that she had hit upon the first of the appropriate form, svelte and sleek to match the glaze. She exclaimed, “Now this one’s a feelie.”, coining the term. Upon developing the new glazes, she felt that she needed new forms to apply the glazes to, different from what she made before, “craft fair” style coiled heads and wind bells. She is quoted as saying, “The old things did not look good … I wanted simpler shapes that went with the glazes.”They are typically globular in shape, tightening down to a minuscule neck glazed to a satin surface. The tactile experience is most important. The nature of the neck is such that it is closed, so narrow that it cannot hold anything. Cabat would reply when asked why the necks of her feelies are so narrow, “A vase can hold weeds or flowers, but can’t it just be a spot of beauty?”