Local Color
Sunday, May 27, 2001
FORGET about the intricate craftsmanship. Forget about the perfect curves and color and intriguing symmetry. It was the odd squashed shape -- as if someone had sat on the bamboo basket by accident -- that caught Lloyd Cotsen's fancy. Odd fancy shapes
collector’s eye for
bamboo masteryIt didn't matter that the other passengers laughed as he lugged his weird basket home on the airplane; Cotsen was hooked.
Starting with that basket he found in a little Japanese store in San Francisco in 1961, the former chairman and CEO of Neutrogena Corp. has amassed a collection of 1,100 bamboo baskets.
About 100 pieces from the collection -- including that first odd-shaped basket -- are on loan to the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
"Bamboo Masterworks" includes works by Shono Shounsai, the first bamboo artist to be designated a National Living Treasure in Japan, and other pivotal bamboo artists.
On view: Honolulu Academy of Arts BAMBOO MASTERWORKS
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, to July 1
Admission: $7 general; $4 students, seniors, military; under 12 free
Call: 532-8700
Guided tours: 11 a.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays, and 1:15 p.m. Sundays
Cotsen became interested in Japanese culture when he was stationed in Japan after World War II. The Japanese have a knack for "refining things done to a minimum and still have the imprint of a human being," he said.
The natural beauty of the bamboo and the craft of basket-making from bamboo appeal to him in particular, Cotsen said. Although bamboo baskets began as humble utilitarian objects in Japan, they have evolved to become a respected modern art form.
"I look at them as portable sculpture" that offers "a great deal of expression in the simplest way," said Cotsen, who collects baskets on the mainland, San Diego, Hawaii and Japan.
He searches out baskets in markets and visits individual makers in their studios.
Cotsen also collects illustrated children's books, textiles and folk art. But his true and major interest is, he said, his "stunningly beautiful" red-headed wife, Amrgit.
The Cotsens live in Los Angeles but keep a vacation home in Hana.
Everything went just fine at last Sunday's dedication of the new children's art exhibit at the Hawai'i Convention Center, said children's art coordinator Dorothy Oshiro. Thanks to those who asked: The 96 keiki artists, who this year include kindergartners, behaved themselves, and so did the parents.Theater maestro Ron Bright came up with a cheering routine for the parents to keep the ceremony orderly and moving. He taught the parents to clap twice and yell "Yay!" when each child went up on stage to receive a certificate. The parents performed perfectly and enthusiastically.
Behind the scenes, though, there was a little last-minute panic when kahu John Keola Lake had a scheduling mix-up and didn't show up to give the blessing. Jon Johnson, who oversees the public art projects at the convention center, ran around looking for a quick fill-in among the guests.
David Hana'ike, science teacher at Kawananakoa Middle School, stepped up and gave a rousing chant in Hawaiian.
"He did a beautiful job. I don't think anybody even noticed he was not John Lake," Johnson said.
Gardening Calendar
Suzanne Tswei's art column runs Sundays in Today.
You can write her at the Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, Suite 7-210, Honolulu, HI, 96813
or email stswei@starbulletin.com
