Japanese ceramics

One of the most important collections of modern Japanese ceramics and lacquerware has been acquired for Die Neue Sammlung (DNS) thanks to the support of Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and Förderverein PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne.

In this way, DNS’s ceramics section, which ever since its foundation in 1925 the exhibition hall has busily sought to expand, has now been emphatically strengthened as regards Asia. The same is true of lacquerware, of which DNS has to date only possessed a few items.

The Jahns as collectors have played a pivotal role in the reception of Japanese ceramics in Germany. Fred Jahn did so through his renowned gallery in Munich where in the 1980s and 1990s he arranged numerous exhibitions on the topic (shows that were influential far and wide) and later also on Japanese lacquerware. Gisela Jahn has had a similar impact through her scholarly work as an author and lecturer at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin.

Thanks to their interest in this branch of Japanese arts and crafts, down through the decades they created what is one of the world’s most important collections of modern ceramics. The Jahns’ focus was on “modern traditional ceramics”, that style which emerged post-1950 as a result of the political effort to preserve endangered Japanese cultural assets. Many of the items in the collection were obtained during the couple’s travels to Japan and the related visits to the workshops of the various artists in question.

The current presentation provides a small foretaste of the major exhibition of the Jahn Japanese collection planned for 2027.