The Missoula Art Museum has a colorful new monolith to call its own.
Two longtime supporters donated a piece that stands over 8 feet tall and weighs 1,582 pounds for the MAM's permanent collection.
The sculpture was made by Jun Kaneko, an artist widely recognized for his large-scale works. The form calls to mind the otherworldly presence of the upright, ovular spaceships in the Denis Villeneuve movie "Arrival."
It's a 2004-2007 entry in Kaneko's "Dango" series, which he nicknamed after the Japanese word for "dumpling."
"He has some of the biggest kilns in North America, and you can say without exaggeration that his level of production is really enormous," said MAM Executive Director Brandon Reintjes.
Kaneko, now in his 80s, has undertaken public art projects such as wall-tile murals in train stations in Detroit and Boston.
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"He's constantly experimental, pushing the boundaries of how ceramic is used," Reintjes said.
Kaneko works in a variety of media, including painting. The surface of this "Dango" is decorated with rectangles and geometric forms, accented with rows dripping glaze. Kaneko has spoken frequently of the importance of scale and his desire to create a spiritual, one-on-one connection between the viewer and the object, Reintjes said.
"It's an invitation that brings you in somehow. It's partly the surface and partly the design," he said.
If you go
The Missoula Art Museum is holding an unveiling for the new sculpture on Thursday, Aug. 21, from 5-7 p.m. There will be music by DJ Mark Myriad and sushi served on platters designed by Kaneko and a no-host bar.
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This piece, which the MAM says is the most significant acquisition yet for its collection, was donated by Pat and Jeff Aresty. When the two offered the MAM the opportunity to select some pieces from their collection, Kaneko's sculpture was an immediate, "yes," Reintjes said, although it posed logistical challenges.
Reintjes said top companies in the field were to thank. U.S. Art transported the massive work by truck from California. Once here, the locally based industrial design firm Wolf Magritte used a specially made gantry to safely get it into the museum and up to the top floor on its current perch, where it will be on display for the foreseeable future.
Besides Kaneko's stature in the ceramics world, the work had appeal to the MAM because of his ties to Montana. He was an artist fellow at the renowned Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena in 1967.
He befriended two of its key figures, who pushed ceramics into the realm of contemporary sculpture in the 1950s onward. He studied with Peter Voulkos, a Bozeman native who'd relocated to California; as well as his friend, Rudy Autio, a Butte native and University of Montana professor. Rudy's wife, Lela Autio and their children Lisa Autio and Christopher Autio are artists as well, who showed a "Dango" from the family collection at the MAM in 2017.
Kaneko, who was born in Japan and emigrated to the U.S. to study art, has made his home base in Omaha, Nebraska, since the 1980s. There, he had enough room to build a sprawling art studio where he employs teams of assistants and can store the necessary equipment to operate "an amazing testing ground," Reintjes said.
"You get to see the extremes of ceramics," he said.
The "Dangos" are among his best-known works. The Princeton University Art Museum acquired one as part of its expanded building that will open in October, according to the New York Times.
They vary in size from the small to the monumental. These larger ones require specialized kilns and must be fired for weeks, Reintjes said.
In a 2000 interview with ArtNet, he said the particular rounded shape dates back to his early days when he was first learning ceramics. It wasn't until later that he embraced the minimalist form.
"I would wedge the clay and end up with a round or oval shape. I always liked that shape, but I was too young to leave it alone. I thought art was something you have to think about and work hard at and make something different," he said.
In addition to his "Dango" series, he makes equally large, abstracted versions of human heads and has undertaken outdoor projects, such as arrangements of columns with striped glazes that rise to about 13 feet.
In a 2009 article in the journal Ceramics: Art and Perception, Kaneko spoke of the effect he hopes to have.
"Whether I am making a large or small piece, in the end I hope it will make sense to have that particular scale and form together and that it will give off enough visual energy to shake the air around it."
Cory Walsh is the arts and entertainment reporter for the Missoulian.
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