An Ode to the Dark Sphere 暗界の譜

Early in his career Nakabayashi was mainly concerned with social themes, but since the late 1970s his work has been dominated by plant motifs taken from nature. In creating a work, he first gathers plants and flowers out of doors and makes their photocopies. Then he adds some lines with a pen, makes some modifications, and erases some parts. The modified picture is again photocopied to prepare the image for printing. "Position" and "Transposition" are two central series in his work, the former expressing the artist at the present moment and the latter capturing the birth of the virtual from the real at the surface of the printing plate. He has consistently expressed in his works his central belief that nothing can escape corrosion in this world and corrosion is progressing quietly around us everywhere through the very process of etching that involves corrosion by acid. He started working with copperplate etching when, as a college student specializing in oil painting, he took a course in etched copperplate taught by Tetsuro Komai. He has since become internationally famous as one of today's foremost Intaglio printmakers. According to the artist himself, his choice of monochrome copperplate as his form of expression has been probably influenced by his experience of being evacuated from his home city as a child during the war and the black-and-white landscapes of Niigata, where he spent his years in refuge. Nakabayashi's life and beliefs has become one with the world and process of etching; perhaps he is an artist who has allowed this art form to dominate his whole existence.