Tucked away on the fifth floor of the Fine Arts Building at 22 East 80 St. off Madison is a unique show of everyday objects, utilitarian and decorative, which were created and used by the Japanese populace and reveal the aesthetic sensibility that pervaded their culture over hundreds of years. Carole Davenport has gathered sculpture paintings, ceramics and textiles which bear testimony to their design sense, often vigorous, often unassuming, drawn from nature, everyday life, even religion.

The Japanese are great abstractionists as evidenced by a Brancusiesque wooden carving of a hawk from the village of Sasano in the snowy north. More realistic is a chubby wooden cat with a vacuous stare. Legend has it that a shopkeeper exhibited kindness to a certain cat and in return the cat positioned itself outside the shop to beckon people inside. Business increased. So an image of a beckoning cat became a fixture outside businesses, then in homes, as a good luck symbol.

Paintings known as Otsu-e were painted by itinerant artists and hawked around the pilgrimage route of Lake Biwa, near Kyoto. Employing stencils for the flat areas of color, then enhanced by black outlines, the blind musician strikes a dramatic pose, arms extended with one above his head gesturing with a bow which draws the viewer over and downward to the piebald dog who playfully tugs at the musician's sash.

Food dishes such as ishizara, potted and fired in the Seto kilns, were a welcome sight when one would stop for victuals. Of sturdy stoneware, the willow motif is freely and quickly painted in underglaze iron and blue. Festival masks offer a glimpse of the frightening, yet somewhat comical, aspect of local performance art. No doubt sake is foremost in the Japanese mindset and tokkuri, or sake bottles, are represented in different forms and media from sturdy stoneware to handsome porcelain.

The show is rich in material. The art possesses a clarity of form and directness of design, elements which appeal to the modern sensibility. The artists are unknown, they are from the people.

DATES & LOCATION:

Opening Oct. 25 at 4pm through Oct. 31 at 4pm at 22 EAST 80 ST. New York City at Leigh Morse FA. Organized by Carole Davenport.