Matthias Kaiser’s pottery is a perfect balance between West and East. It is informed by a love of the works of the Bauhaus Pottery Workshop (1919 to 1925), in particular the work of two of its potters Otto Lindig and Theodor Bogler, and the organic but carefully ordered architecture of their vessels. Increasingly that has been mixed with his love of traditional Japanese pottery, bringing in study of Eastern mysticism. It has resulted in vessels with great visual strength (in particular his precise horizontality that anchors his volumes), elegantly functional but with the soft organic touch of nature. He exhibits both in Europe and in Japan.
Both Kaiser’s parents were working biologists and so nature influenced him from a young age. This was later supplemented by a growing immersion in the literature of Shamanism, Sufism, Taoism, and Hindu mysticisms.
At first music was his focus; he left Austria at the age of 19 to study jazz in New York. Soon after arriving Matthias Kaiser made a handful of small unfired clay objects to decorate his apartment. This led him to take a pottery class, gradually shifting his attention from saxophone to ceramics. At Parsons School of Design he received a basic education in throwing and ceramic technology.
He continued these studies in Japan, moving to the famous ceramics town of Seto (another word in Japanese for ceramics is “things from Seto”) and for a year he apprenticed with the master, Fumitada Moriwaki. He not only learned the Japanese language but realigned his perception of shape, surface and function of a ceramic vessel, tuning in to Wabi-sabi aesthetics.
He traveled to many other ceramic towns in Japan, eventually finding another teacher on the southern island of Kyushu, Takashi Nakazato, an acclaimed master of Yakishime and various Karatsu ceramic styles such as Madara-garatsu, Kohiki and Mishima.
Before opening his own studio in Grafendorf, Austria in 1993, Kaiser enrolled at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna to study product design, all while focusing on research and development of glazes made with raw materials like plant ashes and minerals. This work is still ongoing and years have been spent sourcing and testing different materials.
As a ceramics artist, Kaiser is particularly drawn to the various alchemical changes each material experiences during the creation process:
“In an attempt to communicate each component’s history, I try to seek out, process and blend all raw materials directly from their source. Not only does this influence the design of any given work, but it also deepens my relationship to it both while it is in progress and as a finished piece. My intervention can be subtle, providing a canvas for the display of hidden attributes and elemental forces. This philosophy of finding fulfillment in emptiness corresponds to my long association with mysticism.
Even though most of the objects I make are functional vessels, my fascination lies in aspects that go beyond function without diminishing their purpose. As a European ceramist, I am interested in deconstructing and reinventing traditional shapes and blending them with a formal language that is rooted in Western modern art. However, as an artist who also is utilizing ancient far Eastern techniques and influenced by oriental philosophy, my aim is to apply discreet action in order to maintain the balance between intent and accident.”
The gem of this post lies in the captions. Each piece is followed by a discussion by the artist of the elements (process, emotion, history) that inform each shape.
Garth Clark is the Chief Editor of CFile.
Above image: Matthias Kaiser’s Madara Wayward Vase in a traditional Japanese setting.
Matthias Kaiser, Bauhaus-style teapot with iron handle 2013, h 18cm without handle.
“It´s not well known that the Bauhaus movement influenced the ceramics scene in 1920´s Germany. Some, like Otto Lindig, were prolific and produced very interesting work. This teapot is a variation of a Lindig design. It´s a complex piece that´s assembled from a total of 7 parts plus the handle. The tall body has been closed with a slab and reopened where the protruding turret that holds meets the lid.”
Matthias Kaiser, Bauhaus Kyusu with Wooden Handle, 2013 h 13cm.
“Kyusu is a japanese term for a small teapot with the handle attached sideways. In the west its known as a lug handle. This is a Bauhaus-inspired version with an oakwood handle and an annex for the lid shifted off center.”
Matthias Kasier, Kyusu with Pulled Handle 2103, h 11cm
“A kyusu with an unusual handle pulled from a lump of clay, like one would make for a mug or jug. But the end has not been attached to the lower portion of the pot is left sticking out sideways. It´s easy to grab and use, even with one hand,and the thumb remains free to hold the lid in place.”
Matthias Kaiser, Stack vase 2013, porcelain, h 33cm.
“A vase whose cavity is created by 13 bottomless bowls, with another bowl serving as a base. unique in appearance and manufacture. This is a deliberate kiln accident. The 14 shallow bowls that make up this vase are made and glazed separately,but fired stacked up on top of each other. now they are inseparable, the melting glaze has fused them together.
“In the far east it has been common practice for centuries to stack-fire bowls in order to save kiln space. Usually they are seperated with little wads of fireclay that come off relatively easily after firing and leave characteristic marks on the inside of the bowl. occasionally they have fused together from too much heat and the result were piles of rejects.
“My stacks, on the other hand, are a controlled effort to create a single piece from 14 separate ones, using this old technique in a new way.”
Matthias Kaiser, Wayward Madara Vase 2013, h 36cm
“A closed and flattened shape with a neck added in an eccentric position. Not too self-conscious to eliminate practical use, but not in desperate need of it either. Lovely Madara (wheat straw glaze), drops descending in lockstep.”
Matthias Kaiser, Engraved Guinomi (Sake Cups) h. 6-6,5cm
“These are the result of a collaboration with Czech glass engraver Pavlína Čambalová. They are small cups for rice wine or other spirits that have been thrown on the wheel from a pure white porcelain body and later trimmed and faceted with a knife. I glazed them with a dark tenmoku or a deep blue cobalt glaze. After the glaze firing, Pavlína engraved a signature “M” into the glaze, using a variety of tools like copper wheels, diamonds and stones. thus, exposing the underlying porcelain color giving a striking contrast. The art of glass engraving has a long tradition in the Czech Republic and is still alive and well today. Ceramic glaze is essentially glass, only covering a clay structure, and can be engraved. It´s an exacting and time consuming process engraving one letter takes about an hour.”
Matthias Kaiser, Facet Vasen, 2013-14 h 19-20cm
“The first facet vase was a spare neck for a sake server that I designed for an exhibition in Tokyo in 2010. The surplus neck, roughly trimmed with a knife, struck me as being a nice small vase, so I fired it and the facet vase was created.
“The coloured version of the facet vase was commissioned by the Design Shop of the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. I am using a variety of iron-, copper- and cobalt-coloured glazes that have a tendency to run as they melt in the firing and display this character with amazing arrays of drops on the outsides of the vessels.”
Matthias Kaiser, Golden Chocolate Plattes 20`3. D. 11cm
“These miniature plates for chocolate or the delicacy of your choice quote an archetypal shape. Their handmade nature is obvious but restrained and focused on the details of the essential formal elements. Made from a dark Czech clay, they are fired three times, bisque, glaze and gold overglaze firing. The gold overglaze, containing actual gold, is applied with a brush only on top of the glazed areas, leaving the bare clay visible in the foot area for contrast.”
Matthias Kaiser, Golden Teapot with Steel Handle, 20`3. D. 11cm
“The teapot fired three times, bisque, glaze and gold overglaze firing. The gold overglaze, containing actual gold, is applied with a brush only on top of the glazed areas.”
The work of the Bauhaus Ceramic Workshop plays a strong role in Mathias Kaiser’s aesthetics and sense of form. As one of the first workshops at the Bauhaus, the ceramics workshop was opened as early as 1919 at a Weimar furnace factory. In 1920, the workshop moved to Dornburg, Saale. This was just 20 kilometres away and offered enough space for student accommodation as well as the workshop. Until 1925, Gerhard Marcks was head of form the workshop. The renowned master folk potter Max Krehan was the master of technique from 1920 to 1925. From the top down are various images from the Bauhaus; Max Krehan’s Ceramics Workshop at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1924, and thereafter several works by Theodor Bogler from 1923, a lug handle teapot and sugar pot, a teapot with steel and cane handle, a pouring vessel with the off-centre lid and mouth that Kaiser so appropriates so well in his own work, and, lastly a sugar caddy design from 1923.
Suggested Seminar Study Material and Sources
Learn about the Bauhaus Ceramic Workshop
Read an interview with Matthias Kaiser
Learn More about Karatzu pottery
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