Creative Commons License
Blossoming Peony
(Japan and Korea )
The entirety of Blossoming Peony—its petals, seeds, and stems—is made of clay, transformed through heat to ceramic. Yet, despite its enduring material and monumental scale, the sculpture is fragile on purpose. A favored metaphor in Japan for life, a flower is beautiful but its bloom is brief. For the artist Sugiura Yasuyoshi, clay is the perfect medium to conceptually and physically express the power of nature, as flowers and clay are both born from the soil. By taking conventional or commonplace shapes, such as a flower, and recreating them in an unexpected material and at unusual scale, the artist challenges viewers to reexamine and reinterpret the ordinary.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Joan B. Mirviss, New York, 2004 [1]; purchased by Robert and Betsy Feinberg, Bethesda, Maryland, 2004.
[1] From the artist
Geographies
Japan, Tokyo (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 16 1/8 × W: 19 11/16 in. (41 × 50 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Betsy and Robert Feinberg, 2019
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
49.2834