Flask (tokkuri) c. 20th century

This flask, or Tokkuri, was made by Tsujimura Shirō. I love the way the glaze here is so mutable, like a watercolor, or even like a memory. See how the colors pool and run, the greens bleeding into creams, the way the clay is revealed at the bottom, like a stain? I am especially drawn to those quartz-like droplets that seem to have burst out of the surface, like zits or scars. The materiality of this object is so present. It feels like the result of a natural process, and yet it's clearly made by a skilled human hand. It reminds me a bit of Lucio Fontana’s slashed canvases, where the artist is both embracing and disrupting the surface. There’s a vulnerability in both these approaches, a willingness to let chance and material dictate the outcome. Art isn’t about perfection, but about embracing the unexpected.