Biography of Gerd Knapper

•••Personal History•••

1943-60    Born in Wuppertal, Germany, art classes in ceramics drawing and painting. Study tour through Europe.

1967-70    Studied with Suzuki Seisei in Seto; visit Bernard Leach at St, Ives; settled in Mashiko, study under Mr. Tatsuzo Shimaoka’s guidance, estb. first foreigner owned kiln; Invited as visiting artist. University of Hawaii, one man show at: Daisy’s Gallery, Honolulu.

1971-73   Awarded Education Minister Prize for most traditional Japanese work at 1st. Mainichi news Japan ceramic art competition, Tokyo; participated in“Modern Japanese Ceramic Art” to: USA and Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery; Seattle Art Museum; Cornell University Museum, Ithaca NY; Cleveland Art Museum; organized by: Japan Ministry of Foreign affairs, cultural agency Tokyo.

1974-79    Hamburg, Shimaoka Tatsuzo + Gerd Knäpper Arts and Crafts Museum; Seoul, Korea, opening exhibition for: New Goethe Institute; Okinawa, Rükyu Shimpo 90th anniversary Show.

1980-83   At the invitation of “The Japan Foundation”, solo traveling shows: Cologne, Japan Culture Institute, Art Gallery; Hanover, Kestner Museum; Copenhagen, Applied Art Museum; Ludwigshafen, Wihelm-Hack-Museum; Bangkok/Thailand, Silpakorn University Art Gallery; Hong-Kong, Goethe Institute Art Gallery; Sapporo, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art; Osaka, city contemporary art center; Fukuoka, Museum of Contemporary Art

1984-85   Akita-city Art Gallery; Singapore, Goethe Institute Art Gallery; Tokyo, annual one man show at: Ginza, Matzuya Store, Art Salon; Nürnberg, Germanisches-National-Museum; Wuppertal von der Heyd-Museum; Mannheim, Kunsthalle; Aschaffenburg, Schloßmuseum; Seoul, Korea, Shinseigae Art Gallery; Fukuoka, Iwataya Art Gallery;

1986-89    Awarded: Prime Minister’s prize at “Japan modern Arts & Crafts Exhibition, Metropolitan Art Museum Tokyo; Osaka, one man show: Shinseibashi Daimaru Store Art Gallery; Berlin: National Museum of Crafts, SMPK; Kumamoto-Pref. Art Museum;Daigo, 1st commission for art in public - (Main Traffic Bridge In Daigo); Kobe, Daimaru Store Art Gallery; Celle, Boymann-Museum; Tokyo, Ginza; 1st annual show at: Wako Art Hall;

1990--92   Awarded: Order of Merit ( The iron cross on ribbon) of the Federal Republic of Germany; Continuing exhibiting at: Berlin-German-Japan Center; Darmstadt Kunsthalle; Los Angeles, MOA Foundation Art Gallery; Chicago, Goethe Institute Art Gallery;Toronto, Royal Ontario Crafts Council; Arizona, Phoenix Art Museum; Mexico City, Franz-Mayer-Museum; “GERD KNÄPPER OBJECTS”, Yokohama Art Museum Gallery;

1993-95   New York City, “ Modern Japanese studio ceramics in American collections”, Japan House Art Gallery; Frankfurt, Museum for applied art, Four Elements, Three countries, Germany, England, and Japan, Giesela Freudenberg Collection; München Gallery of applied arts, “Metal Objects Form + Function”; Frankfurt Museum for applied arts, “KATACHI” New crafts from Japan;

1996-99   Roma, ” Giappone in Italia” Trio exhibition at: Japan culture Institute Art Gallery; Seattle, Bryan Ohno Gallery, “Options in Sculpture” Seattle, “Artfair 97” SEATTLE; 5. Kanazawa Crafts Exhbition; Tokyo, “Form in Metal”(Kinsoku Zoke) Goethe Institut Forum; Yamanashi pref., 1st FUJI Internatl. Biannual, Nakatomi Art Museum; Tokyo, “GERD KNÄPPER OBJECTS” invitl. show at: Aoyama BMW Square; Halle, Moritzburg, State Gallery Art-Museum; Karlsruhe, Schlossmuseum; Colgne + Brüssel, Gallery Lemperts Contempora; New Delhi, India, Goethe Institut Art Gallery, conducting 1 week workshop / lecture at: international Art colony “SANSKRITi” India; Received NHK Japan Broadcast Corp. cultural honor; Tokyo, 14st Annual “Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition”;

2000-03   Tokyo, German Ceramics 1900-2000, National Museum of Modern Art; Mito, 3rd. Modern Artists of Ibaraki, Museum of Modern Art; Tokyo, “Yakimono Tambo” NHK video production combined exhibit at: Mitsukoshi Art Gallery; Takahagi, Ibaraki, “Presentation In Nature” solo exhb. Daishien-Museum; Sacramento, California, “GERD KNÄPPER + BOB FREIMARK”, The Art Foundry; Represented at: SOFA Chicago; S. F., Asian Art Fair; N.Y. The New York Ceramics Fair; Hamburg, “Art Ceramics of far East” Tatsuzo Shimaoka and Gerd Knäpper; Rosenthal studio house Tokyo, 45th “Japan Contemporary Crafts Exhibition”, Metropolitan Museum;

2004-06    Utsunomiya, modern atists of Tochigi, Art Museum; “Gerd Knäpper Objects” at: T. Zink- Museum, Kaiserslautern; Museum Baden, Solingen; Japan Culture Institut art Gallery, Cologne; New Benaki Art Museum, Athen, Greece; TÜV Rheinland Art Forum Yokohama

2007.5.19.   Daigo, Opening exhibition Inaugurate:   “ GERD KNÄPPER GALLERY ”

ご　挨　拶

　なぜ日本を第二の故郷として選んだのかということを度々質問されますが、その理由は日本の陶芸の重要さ、また長い伝統にあると答えています。私が日本に魅力を感じた理由はまさにこの点であり、
35年後の今もなおこの気持ちは変わっていません。1969年の9月、多くの人々からの忠告にもかかわらず、私自身で建てた工房の屋根の下で、益子焼の研究を続ける決心をしました。若いまた熱心な仲
間たちと意を同じくして製作に打ち込むという夢は、このようにして実現できることになりました。この夢を追い求めるために、益子に戻ってきたのです。多くの友人や知人、加えて益子焼の巨匠の方々
の助言により必要な材料を全て手にいれることができました。そこでは私と同じ年代で彼ら自身も成長過程にある学生や窯元たちに必要な技術的な情報があふれていました。
　最初の計画では、益子に2年間滞在し、その後のことはまたそのときに決めるつもりでした。しかし、1971年6月に受賞したことが契機となり、私は計画を変更し新たな挑戦のために益子にとどまる
ことを決意したのです。2つの窯を備えた、より大きな工房を作ることになり、東京を初めとし他の都市での私の作品の巡回展の準備を始めることになりました。
　私の家族や、子供達の成長のことを考えますと、より広いスペースのある住居と仕事場を探す必要性がでてきました。家族揃っての4か月間のドイツ旅行に出かける直前、ある友人から大子に何年間
も空き家のまま大地主の屋敷があると聞き、その家に是非案内して欲しいと頼んだのです。その屋敷は、まったく生活の気配がなく、恐ろしいほど荒廃していました。最初その家に足を踏み入れた時に
は、あまり良い感じを受けませんでした。5年もの間、誰一人として住んでいませんでしたので、雨水や湿気で畳がすっかり腐っており、カビがいたるところに生えていました。その家の裏側にある部屋
の一つへ入った時、腐った床板を踏み破って落ちてしまいました。また、屋根に開いた大きな穴から空が見えたときには本当にびっくりしました。どの部屋にもその昔、掛軸や刀剣などの貴重な宝物が
保管されていたと思われる木製の箱が朽ち果てた姿であちこちに散らばっていました。しかし廊下から草の生い茂った庭を見下ろした時、この建物を残したまま何とか住居と仕事場を作れないかと思ったのです。
　ドイツを広く旅行する間に、売りに出していた空き家を幾つか見る機会もありましたが、太郎坂屋敷の強烈な印象が私からどうしても離れませんでした。さらに交渉を続けた結果、1974年10月ついに
太郎坂屋敷の幸福な持ち主となることができました。4,300㎡の敷地内に私の望むだけの窯や、野菜園、蒔の貯蔵場などに十分なスペースをとることができました。私たちが大子に住んで早29年が過ぎまし
たが、私も妻も太郎坂で育ったような気がします。長い外国旅行や国内旅行から戻ると早く私の家の静寂さに浸りたいと思います。
　私の作品はいろいろな文化を背景にする原始的、そして現代的な芸術の啓示を受けたものです。私は、自分自身を日本の芸術家と思っておらず、またドイツの芸術家だとも思っていません。私のユニ
ークな立場から、私の作品は東洋と西洋のエレメントを持ちながら独自の形態を継承したものと言えます。
　この作品集は、ヨーロッパ巡回展用に製作したもので、私の代表的な作品を紹介しています。皆様に私の作品をより知っていただければ幸いです。

　　２００３年１１月　大子にて
ゲルト・クナッパー

Autobiographical statement

Often I am asked why I have chosen Japan as my second home country. [Gerd is a native of Germany.] In my answers I always refer to the significant and long tradition of Japanese Ceramic art concluding that this is what attracted me to Japan and still, after 29 years, is holding me in its spell.

In September, 1969 I decided, in spite of warnings from many people, to continue my studies of Mashiko ceramics under the roof of the workshop I had erected. The dream of working as an equal among young, aspiring colleagues was thus fulfilled. It was in pursuance of this dream that I had returned to Mashiko. A number of friends and acquaintances as well as the solicitous recommendations of the great masters of Mashiko made it possible for me to get all necessary materials. There was also an abundance of technical information to be had among many students and kiln owners of my age who were in the process of developing themselves.

My original plan was to stay for two years in Mashiko and to decide on a further course after that. But the Minister of Education Award which I received in June 1971, changed my plan and I decided to stay in Mashiko to meet the challenge. I started to construct a bigger workshop with two kilns and to organize shows of my works in Tokyo and other cities.

The founding of my family and the prospect of growing children compelled me to look for a more spacious house and working place. Just prior to a planned four months exhibition trip to Germany with the whole family, a friend from Daigo told me about a big manor house which had been vacant for some years. Because of my special interest in wooden architecture farmhouses, I asked this friend to show me the house.

I found it hard to believe this dilapidated structure, and overgrown ground to have been the former village chieftain’s. The manor house was completely without life and gave a frighteningly desolate impression. At first I had a bad feeling when I entered the house. No human being had lived there for five to ten years, but I thought that it might be possible to save this imposing beam structure and to create a fancy living space and a place for my work in this estate.

During our extensive trip in Germany we had opportunities to look at some vacant farmhouses for sale, but the overwhelming impression of the manor house of Tarosaka would not leave me. In October 1974 I finally became the happy owner of the dilapidated Tarosaka estate. With an area of 4300 Square meters, I now had enough space for as many kilns as I liked to build, for growing vegetables, as well as for a big storage area for wood fuel.

After 27 years in Daigo. My wife and I feel as if we were raised at Tarosaka. Coming back from long journeys abroad or within the country I always look forward to returning to the tranquility of my home.

My work is inspired by primitive and modern art of various cultures. I don’t consider myself a Japanese artist nor a German artist. Based on my unique position, my work inherits an independent structure with elements of the East and of the West.