Tristan Hoare & Lyndsey Ingram Frieze Masters

Tristan Hoare & Lyndsey Ingram at Frieze Masters Online

9th - 16th October 2020

Lyndsey Ingram and Tristan Hoare are delighted to collaborate on their first Frieze Masters Exhibition. We originally planned a booth presenting early work by the American artist Ellsworth Kelly alongside Moon Jars by Korean artist Kim Yikyung, known as the ‘mother of Korean ceramics’. Kelly greatly admired Korean ceramics, particularly the iconic Moon Jars, and our intention was to bring them together for the first time.

Following the cancellation of the physical fair, we have decided to put on this exhibition and expand the horizon, combining ancient works from the collection of John Kasmin with abstract American post-war prints.  Kasmin’s gallery showed many of these important artists in London for the first time. Our aim is to explore and develop a conversation between more ancient forms and the contemporary abstract language that emerged in America from the 1960’s onwards. 

Kim Yikyung’s Moon Jars date from the late 20^th century, but the form developed much earlier in the 17^th and 18^thCenturies during the Joseun period in Korea. The shapes made today are directly connected with this past and offer an interesting comparison to the American prints which come from the new and dynamic culture that emerged there in the 20th century. 

The exhibition will include a Neolithic Chinese pot, an 18th century ceramic Moroccan jug, a wooden Minianka sceptre from Mali, dating from the early 20th century and a 19^th Century Sake Bowl from Japan. These are combined with work by Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, and Donald Judd, in addition to Kelly’s lithographs from the early 1960s.  

The distinctive shape of the Moon Jar is unique to Korea, emerging in 17th Century and reaching its peak in the 18th century during the Joseon period. They are made by producing the upper and lower parts separately and joining them in the middle, forming a rounded body said to resemble a full moon. Because they are made from two separate parts, a process fraught with challenges, the shape is never perfect giving Moon Jars their distinctive enigmatic presence. No jar is the same, setting them apart from standardised shapes in Chinese and Japanese ceramics and imbuing them with a personality which has fascinated artists and collectors for hundreds of years. 

Negoro refers to elegant red lacquer functional objects produced in Japan since the twelfth century. Several layers of black lacquer are applied in the process followed by multiple layers of red. These are intended to gradually wear away with use, revealing the black underneath and mixing with the red to give a wonderful naturally aged patina. Its typically Japanese that the craftsmen who make these have such a long perspective and must be aware that only later generations will enjoy the full flowering of the object.