Chaos カオス

EI-KYU is an artist who has experimented working in diverse styles, including Impressionism, Pointillism, Cubism, and Surrealism. In the area of technique too, he has invented many innovative ones that traverse multiple art fields such as print, oil painting, and photography. "Chaos," produced in 1957, is a fascinating work where all the artist's past experiments come together. Painted on four panels of plywood, it was created as a decorative piece for the outer wall of the storehouse belonging to the residence of the art critic Teijiro Kubo, who supported El-KYU and other members of the "Democrat Art Association". Employing stencils with jellyfish-like organic forms and circles, the oil paint has been applied with an air brush. The technique utilizes the process of photo-dessin in which stencils are placed on the photographic paper and light is cast on it through a screen to form images. The effect here, showing elements of both Pointillism and Cubism, is phantasmagoric. Following this work, the artist moved on to a style in which the dots of Pointillism are themselves broken down to cover the whole picture and create a sense of uneasiness.