Work 作品

The picture looks as if something has just exploded on it and the paint contained inside has started to flow profusely. In a slow movement it covers the whole surface, creating languid curves. The colors of red, yellow, and green are bright with a lightness that only enamel paint can impact. The somehow humorous ground shape to the right and the thin tricking lines to the left are motif Motonaga especially favored in the 1990s, and many paintings have been created by combining these two elements. Motonaga long held the position of a leading member of GUTAI group, participating in it from 1955 to 1971, and he invited a new style in 1959 with his original technique of “nagashi(flowing)”. An applied form of “tarashikomi” in Japanese-style painting, this technique involves pouring paint onto a canvas laid flat on the floor and then tilting it to make the paint flow. Depending on the amount of paint and the slant of the canvas, the flow creates varied forms, that is, they are made according to a preliminary sketch”. This particular painting eloquently testifies to the artist’s acute sense of form.