The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

White porcelain sculpture featuring one rectangular box in another, warping fluidly into each other. Where the base of the boxes would be, the grey background shows through them. They tilt upward on our left, sides curving in on the long edges and out on the short edges while preserving pointed corners. The smaller box slides down, on our right, with a large gap on our left between it's short edge and the the larger box's.

Forms in Succession #11

2010

Nagae Shigekazu

(Japanese, b. 1953)
Japan, Heisei period (1989–2019)
porcelain with white trailing glaze
Overall: 35.6 x 47 x 52.1 cm (14 x 18 1/2 x 20 1/2 in.)
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2023.39
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

After watching his father and grandfather destroy unsellable wares at the family kiln, Nagae began to investigate and experiment with warped and abstracted forms in his own porcelain.

Description

This artwork comprises two fluid boxes, one inside the other, each moving to its own rhythm. Razor thin, the porcelain shapes are reminiscent of origami, the Japanese art of folding paper. By challenging fixed ideas for what is possible with porcelain, Nagae Shigekazu has created a new form of ceramic art.
  • 2010
    (Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., New York, NY, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Keithley)
    2010–2023
    Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2023–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Rousmaniere, Nicole Coolidge. "Japanese Ceramics." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 230–251. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 248–249; Mentioned: p. 269
  • Contemporary Calligraphy and Clay. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7, 2024-June 15, 2025).
    Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=Forms in Succession #11|url=false|author=Nagae Shigekazu|year=2010|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.39