Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum

The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum’s ‘Lucie Rie: Elegant Vessels Fusing East and West’ is a major retrospective dedicated to one of the most influential ceramic artists of the 20th century. Born in Vienna in 1902, Rie developed her artistic vision at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts or School of Applied Arts) before establishing herself as a ceramic artist. Forced to flee Austria in 1938, she rebuilt her life and career in London, where she created a distinctive body of work characterized by elegant wheel-thrown forms, delicate incised and inlaid decorations, and luminous glazes. Combining precision, experimentation and extraordinary sensitivity to form, Rie’s vessels embody a rare balance of strength and grace. This exhibition marks the first large-scale survey of her work in Japan in nearly a decade and brings together outstanding examples from Japanese collections, including works from the renowned Iuchi Collection. The exhibition traces Rie’s artistic evolution from her early years in Vienna to the height of her career in Britain. It also explores her connections with key figures such as Josef Hoffmann, Bernard Leach, Hans Coper and Shoji Hamada, revealing how dialogues between European modernism and East Asian ceramic traditions shaped her creative practice. Presented throughout the museum’s celebrated Art Deco Main Building and Annex, the exhibition engenders a compelling conversation between Rie’s elegant vessels and the refined architecture of...