Over 400 pieces of Asian ceramics from the Hiroko Hara and Shigeharu Taltahashi collection were donated to the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. The recent exhibition of these pieces validates a quintessential principle of artistry: art is not a contrived or structured expression, but is most often an intuitive articulation. The pots in the exhibition were not created as an artistic expression. To the contrary, they were a commercial exercise. That so many of the pieces in the show illustrate individual artistic talents is a measure of the innate sensitivities in what is essentially production ware. The collection encompasses the spectrum of Asian trade ceramics, except for Korean works, born of the Takahashis' residency in Indonesia in the 1970s. What at a superficial level is mundane functional ware, in a global view is a cross-section of six centuries of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese production ware. These are not one-of-a-kind works, except for rarity of survival. Rather, they were mass produced for their utility in storing and transporting goods and foodstuffs. Some acquired extrinsic spiritual values among Southeast Asian populations and even served as a measure of wealth.
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