Every year the Cleveland Museum of Art organizes a thematic exhibition of Asian art titled "Asian Autumn," based on its own collection.
This year's exhibition focuses on pottery of ancient Japan and Korea, with a selection of pieces made between roughly 2500 B.C. and the 16th century.The museum says these objects are remarkable not only for their beauty but because they already incorporate themes characteristic of modern Japanese design. They range from vessels built up from coils of clay dating from before the invention of the potter's wheel, to those incorporating more sophisticated techniques, made of high-fired stonewares or finished with natural glazes.
Many pieces in the show, "Early Ceramics from Japan and Korea," have been modeled with basic curves and angles, forms that were established in Japan by 10,000 B.C. and are very much evident in the 20th century - what the museum calls "a three-millennium continuity of aesthetic attitude."
The exhibition will run through Dec. 3.