FROM STRAND
TO SCULPTURE:

“From Strand to Sculpture: Contemporary Japanese Basketry,” an exhibition of bamboo art crafted by highly skilled and specialized Japanese artists, featuring pieces on loan from the collections of Carl and Marilynn Thoma and the Thoma Foundation in Dallas, Texas. Visitors will be surprised and delighted by the mastery of the art form on display, and by the variety of works, from precise and contained vessels to dramatic sculptural forms that show the expressive power of bamboo. All have been chosen with the theme of the elements, echoing the importance of nature as a theme in the design of the Gambles’ home.

The Gamble House is a natural venue for the display of many types of Japanese art due to the inspiration that its architects, Charles and Henry Greene, drew from the arts and architecture of Japan. Charles Greene, in particular, felt this connection deeply in his artistic and spiritual life over many decades. They shared this interest in Asia with their clients, David and Mary Gamble of Cincinnati, Ohio, who commissioned the home from Greene & Greene. With the house under construction in 1908, David and Mary Gamble and their two teenaged sons traveled to Japan, China, and Korea over a period of several months. The family returned with a much richer understanding of the Japanese elements that Greene & Greene had drawn from in their design, and which gave the firm’s work such distinct character on the American scene at the time.

The Gamble House and the art form of Japanese bamboo basketry share common themes: both represent a compelling intersection of art and craft, and of function and sculpture. In contrast to a conventional gallery setting, the Gamble House will provide an intriguing environment for the display of works of bamboo art with the richness of its wood surfaces, enveloping spaces, and gently glowing light.

Additional Japanese baskets, on loan from the collection of Kelly Sutherlin McLeod and Steven McLeod, will be employed for ikebana floral arrangements during the exhibition. The arrangements are created by the flower committee of the Docent Council of the Gamble House, which provides flower arrangements for the house on a weekly basis throughout the year under the tutelage of a Japanese master of Ohara school ikebana.

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This exhibition and related programs are supported in part by the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation, the Perenchio Foundation, and the Wilhelm Family Foundation.