TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has several recent acquisitions now on view, including a Dale Chihuly (American, 1941) chandelier that was donated to the Museum by a generous benefactor.
In Gallery 23, the new acquisition, Trolldom Teku Maku Maya Kon by Katsuyo Aoki (Japanese, 1972) is on view. The wall-mounted, hand-painted blue and white porcelain in the shape of a large medallion with a large skull at the top and numerous butterflies and flowers draws the viewer's attention at 11 feet tall and 7 feet wide.
Aoki is known for her elaborately carved and painted porcelain objects that often focus on the vanitas theme and bear her signature skulls, which she says “express the sacred and vulgar atmosphere of the present age.”
With its installation in the Museum’s 17th-century European gallery, Trolldom Teku Maku Maya Kon creates new conversations about how the work of a 20th-century Japanese female artist interacts with a Chinese blue and white ceramic bowl, Delft ceramic vases, the Allegory of Vanity by Jan Miense Molenaer and other Dutch paintings.
