Dora Holzhandler Painting & Jim Malone Tenmoku pots - GOLDMARK.TV

This is a cultural journey into the gallery by Dora Holtz-Handler. We have been involved with Dora for about 7 or 8 years since our choice in 2015. The waves are coming in huge, huge, unbelievable. These are the very first storms we've had in 5 years. It's impossible within this broader framework. The efforts are progressing through houses. That's where I'm going to be in Porthmeor, St Ives, Dora was going on a trip with her three children. These houses are clearly visible. The Porthmere is very culturally significant due to its roads. You can see them. The choice is a very big one. Apart from her life, Dora was well known to many people of culture, including, interestingly enough, the Dalai Lama. A note from Wendy about her work, Edna O'Brien, Jack Dee He understood people, and he liked what was being done. He was careful in his choice of production, It would be very interesting for us both, We are hopeless. Welcome back to our impromptu exhibition of 101 prized pots by Jim Malone. We had a great start to the show last week, A truly fantastic response to the walkthrough that we had here, and a number of truly beautiful pots, including my favorite large temaku pot, have now found new homes. I thought today we would specifically look at temaku. because it's a glaze I really love, and it doesn't receive the love it deserves. I think it needs championing. And there's also a truly fascinating history, There's a truly fascinating story behind it. And there are several pots in this exhibition featuring temaku glaze. That's what we're going to be looking at today. I hope you enjoy. Temaku is a Japanese word. but it refers to a Chinese mountain, Tianmu Mountain, Mountain of Heaven's Eye. And it also refers to a type of pot. that was made in China during the Song Dynasty. So we're looking at the late 900s, early 1000s AD. Temaku originally referred to a type of ware. that was made in China during this period, and that was particularly prized for its use with the tea ceremony and drinking tea in China. So actually, once upon a time, You would have a white temaku as well as a black temaku. But today, it's really, the term is used for this beautiful, glossy black glaze what we are seeing on these pots in front of me. The secrets of Temaku were brought back to Japan. by Buddhist monks who went to China, Who traveled to China to discover more about Zen Buddhism? in the Chinese temples scattered around this mountain, and brought back with them not just tea leaves and the practice of ceremonial tea drinking, but also Temaku goods. The Japanese truly loved this beautiful brown-black glaze. on tea bowls It's very simple, refined color, beautifully complemented the bright green and the white of various different matcha teas used in the ceremony. So they brought back numerous such pots with them, And they became extremely popular in Japan. And the height of taste in elite Japanese society. The temmoku glaze that these Chinese potters developed During that Song Dynasty period, it was extremely rich in iron. That's what gives it this beautiful color. The density of the metal in this glaze absorbs much of the light spectrum. That's why you get this wonderful black color. What the Chinese potters also realized, though, Is it because this is a glaze that is so rich in iron? That richness, that excess can be exploited. for various techniques And you'll see across these pots that black is breaking to this beautiful dark brownish rust-red color. Temaku is a very fluid glaze. The iron in it at high temperatures It means it runs very smoothly. And it's partly that fluidity that helps. with achieving some of these different effects. On contours, on raised lips, and down vertical faces, as that glaze begins to run and thin out where it thins along these raised edges, on these elevated surfaces The glaze will cool to this beautiful brown color. Managing that color difference, that color change, became a true art in Chinese pottery, as it is for a potter like Jim Malone today. He makes it look simple in these pots, But it's actually a very difficult balance to maintain. It depends on a number of different variables. How thinly the glaze is applied, How much iron is in it? how long or how quickly it has been allowed to cool All of these can affect the color change from black to brown. But one particular thing that the Chinese potters realized was that this excess amount of iron could be highly exploited for some very specialized techniques, some very special surface decoration on their pots. They realized that under the right atmospheric conditions, very specific atmospheric conditions inside the kiln, the iron, the excess iron that's within this glaze, could be made to precipitate on the surface and create all kinds of beautiful, iridescent, streaky effects on the glaze surface. Now, they are very particular about a certain type of pottery. that was hoarded by the Japanese That was valued above almost everything else. There are very, very few teabowls remaining from that period that are still intact. But actually, you can see a slight trace of that effect. in one of these Jim Malone pots. If I pick up this vase, you can see, as well as some of the areas where this black has begun to break, if you look very carefully, there is a slight sheen, a kind of spotting across the surface of the glaze where the amounts of iron in this glaze have precipitated on the surface of this pot. They've been brought to the top. and as they have cooled, they have created this beautiful, A somewhat oily texture across the front of this pot. The different techniques that these Chinese potters practiced and perfected had various different names depending on the things they thought they resembled. So we have prized Chinese pots from this period things like hare's fur, partridge feathers, oil spotting. These were things greatly valued by Japanese monks. that brought back these teabowls, introduced them to the connoisseurs, the growing number of tea connoisseurs in Japanese society, And it meant that Temaka was a highly prized glaze at the time. These days, it seems to receive less love, and I'm never quite sure why that is. I remember having a conversation with the late, great Phil Rogers about this. Who made a number of temaka pots? It's a color that, to me, is so evocative of ceramics at their best. It's such a unique kind of black that you don't really seem to find anywhere else. I have my suspicions about why it might not be quite so popular. Why does it go through those trends and fashions of being popular and not? It's not a forgiving glaze, not a forgiving glaze to work with because it's so fluid, but also for the shape beneath it. There's something about this glossy black color. which completely emphasizes the shape beneath. You can immediately see the silhouette of a pot in temaka. And if that form isn't quite right, it's immediately obvious. It results in, I think, very bold pots. It's a glaze that's somewhat known within the potting community as a potter's glaze. It is especially valued by craftsmen, and especially makers within this kind of tradition, for that wonderful deep black color, but also its ability to shift into these various dark red hues as well. But another thing that I think really makes Temaka work The fact that it is a color that wonderfully complements the flowers in these vases. Black is a color you don't really find in the floral world, in the natural world, So it makes for a wonderful contrast. It somewhat establishes the beautiful color of a bloom that has been selected for a vase. I think it beautifully emphasizes the sculptural quality of these vases. And it really works, particularly on some of these up here. You can see from a number of these different vases just as Jim Balone, like those ancient Chinese potters, has realized a number of different ways of manipulating, of getting the most out of the excess iron present in the glaze. So you've got over here on this side some finger-swiping decoration, and that's where Jim has very quickly pulled his fingers through the glaze before it dries on the pot over there. We also have various different applied decorations, So we have some kind of indented, patterned markings here on these two small pots. We've got some pellets in this little medieval-style baluster jug, And this beautiful jar, which is almost like a pagoda. It has that kind of Oriental influence in some of these shapes here. One of my favorite decorative techniques that Jim uses, though are the pours of different glazes that he uses. So over here on this flask behind my shoulder We've got Temico glaze with these beautiful copper pours. They've been applied quite thickly here, And it's a truly beautiful color. You can see a whole spectrum of greens and blues, a nearly metallic sheen to this pot. Where it's thinned out, we have something that almost looks like the hair's fur technique. It's not quite the same actually, thinning out into this beautiful blue color. And actually under the right conditions, remembering that Jim Malone fires with a mixture of oil and wood, So the introduction of wood and fly ash has affected the surfaces of some of these temicos. You can see at the very bottom of this small drip a faint hint of red that has crept in here. People who work within this Anglo-Oriental tradition are sometimes painted with that brush of the Brown Pot Parade, sort of harking back to that 1960s, 1970s movement of ethical pots Moving out to the countryside, making pottery in the style of Bernard Leach and Hamada. It's only when you get up close and personal with pots like these that you realize there's no such thing. There's a whole spectrum of colors going on in here. If I show you this vase over here with its Nuka shoulder at the top, Nuka and Temico have formed a traditional pairing for a long time now. It's something you'll see frequently in Hamada's pottery, for example. Because Nuka, which is a glaze we'll examine very soon, is also a very fluid glaze. It merges into the black, and we get all kinds of beautiful effects where the two meet. As I turn this pot around, you can actually see on the surface, on the glaze surface, where some of those drips have run down the side of the pot and become part of that glassy surface. There's something about this lovely, rustic, oatmeal-like, olive-toned color. that complements this beautiful dark black very well. There's also a pot down here that I'd like to show you, Just to give you an idea of how variable Temico and the different effects that can be achieved with it can be within the kiln. You can see that a large part of the surface of this pot has worn away to reveal this lovely rusty color. but also that some of these copper pours that Jim Malone has added are completely different from those we saw in this flask bottle over my shoulder. They've run much further, and there's an entirely different world of colors unfolding in these. But it's a particularly nice effect because it gives the stems of this incised decoration, which is located on the front of the pot, a very different texture. It feels much more natural and organic, almost as if they are the flowers or leaves of this plant itself. The actual rusty red color on the surface of this temico pot is not unlike the one you'll see on the khaki pots that Jim Malone makes. Actually, the two glazes are very, very similar. The main difference between the two is that khaki contains even more iron, making it even richer in iron. What happens is that excess iron contained within the glaze forms a crystalline surface over the pot. This lovely color, this rusty hue that you can see, is actually iron oxide crystallizing together into a continuous surface of crystals that give it this beautiful red color, this deep red color. You can see the khaki, almost the opposite of the temoco, breaking into darker blacks. I remember talking to someone recently about how I think I could probably live at home with only black and white pictures, black and white prints, and paintings. Temoco glaze is a bit like that for me. There is something about the refined simplicity of temoco, the simplicity of black and brown. which conceals a world of technical and chemical complexity. I think it's a truly beautiful glaze, and I still don't understand why it isn't as popular as it should be. These Temoco pots have been some of my favorites in this exhibition, so I've really enjoyed taking them out and having a good long look. Enjoying the different effects that have been brought out on the glaze surface by the way Jim fires it. I hope you've enjoyed seeing them as well. In the coming weeks we'll be looking at another aspect of Jim's work, his nuka glazing. I look forward to showing you some of those as well.