The hare - particularly a white hare or rabbit - is a complex symbol encompassing elements of harmless madness, purity and rebirth and is closely associated with the seasonal pull of the moon. The hare shares many good characteristics from the Chinese Taoist moon-hare that creates a herbal elixir of life, through the Japanese Usagi, to Buddhist and Hindu incarnations, the Shi'ite reincarnation of Ali and the Celtic origins of the Mad March Hare, the Easter Bunny and Jimmy Stewart's 6 foot 3 and a half inch Pooka called Harvey. But it is not well liked in Hebrew culture, and by derivation Christians, who see the hare as a symbol of fertility and is therefore bad. This kind of nonsense and religious intolerance spread spider-like through different cultures is relevant to Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes which treats art objects as telling a story beyond their creator and cultural origins in the way that they can touch many different lives.
On a recent visit to the Pallant Gallery in Chichester, UK, I saw some really paintings by an unjustly neglected official war artist Evelyn Dunbar rescued from a Kent attic and a collection of paintings, drawings, engravings and poems by an artist called David Jones. Inspired by one of David Jones' poems was an exhibition of minimalist ceramics in cases or vitrines. Visually these were no more interesting that a pile of petri dishes and I walked swiftly past them. None of the group I was with even remember seeing them. A real lesson, and I obviously needed it, that every object, like every person, has an interesting story to tell if you will only take the time to look. This book is part of that story and it is a fascinatingly rich and diverse one that I heartily recommend.
The start or end point is a collection of 264 Japanese Netsuke which are wood or ivory carvings - none of them bigger than a matchbox and all carefully designed to be slightly rounded and easily portable. Although these are figurative it is easy to see the restraint and subtlety of their design in Edmund de Waal's pottery and he won't be the first or the last potter to be deeply influenced by Japanese cultural and spiritual attitudes. This is deeply ingrained from time he spent studying in Japan - but that is only a part of the labyrinthine cultural and art historical connections that run through his family and span the globe. I'm not going to retell the story here - you need to buy and read the book. I've just a couple of other observations to make. The first is how surprisingly cool, pragmatic and level-headed his description is of the psychosis and institutional theft that rich Jewish families suffered across Europe in the Twentieth Century and the second is how heart-warming, but so frustratingly anonymous, is the tale of family loyalty shown by the German lady who hid these valuable Netsuke in her mattress during the Second World War and ensured their success as objects which frame their owner's memories.
PS. Watch The Joyless Street from 1925 on YouTube. It's not Greta Garbo you need to watch it's the fear of the international banker. Some things don't change.
On a recent visit to the Pallant Gallery in Chichester, UK, I saw some really paintings by an unjustly neglected official war artist Evelyn Dunbar rescued from a Kent attic and a collection of paintings, drawings, engravings and poems by an artist called David Jones. Inspired by one of David Jones' poems was an exhibition of minimalist ceramics in cases or vitrines. Visually these were no more interesting that a pile of petri dishes and I walked swiftly past them. None of the group I was with even remember seeing them. A real lesson, and I obviously needed it, that every object, like every person, has an interesting story to tell if you will only take the time to look. This book is part of that story and it is a fascinatingly rich and diverse one that I heartily recommend.
The start or end point is a collection of 264 Japanese Netsuke which are wood or ivory carvings - none of them bigger than a matchbox and all carefully designed to be slightly rounded and easily portable. Although these are figurative it is easy to see the restraint and subtlety of their design in Edmund de Waal's pottery and he won't be the first or the last potter to be deeply influenced by Japanese cultural and spiritual attitudes. This is deeply ingrained from time he spent studying in Japan - but that is only a part of the labyrinthine cultural and art historical connections that run through his family and span the globe. I'm not going to retell the story here - you need to buy and read the book. I've just a couple of other observations to make. The first is how surprisingly cool, pragmatic and level-headed his description is of the psychosis and institutional theft that rich Jewish families suffered across Europe in the Twentieth Century and the second is how heart-warming, but so frustratingly anonymous, is the tale of family loyalty shown by the German lady who hid these valuable Netsuke in her mattress during the Second World War and ensured their success as objects which frame their owner's memories.
PS. Watch The Joyless Street from 1925 on YouTube. It's not Greta Garbo you need to watch it's the fear of the international banker. Some things don't change.
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