Unfolding 展開

The canvas is covered with innumerable slanting and spiraling lines, which create triangular color planes where they cross. The lines, which are black and clear cut to look as if they have been etched into the surface, were not drawn according to a previously made plan as the charcoal preliminary lines seen underneath the ground, but have been put down following the urges rising from the artist's subconscious. Nambata's own words describing his abstract work as creations of "an automatic process" also confirms this process. Thus we can see these abstract lines and their movements as expressions of inner energies buried deep within the artist's mind. Yet, there is no doubt that the act of applying colors to the triangles created by intercrossing lines has been carried out with full awareness and intent. The added colors give impact to the forms, which in turn gives balance to the composition, and through this, the lines emerging out of the subconscious are turned into objective elements. In this structure, the work anticipates his later Abstract-Expressionistic style where emergence of forms is suppressed.