Project
An interview of Michiko Nakatani about "Mask in the Bright Day / Harden the Night".
Gallery
Currently, two solo shows are exhibited simultaneously here in Tokyo and in Mie Prefectural Art Museum. I prepared these exhibits in parallel, both being composed of works of black resin in dark room and that using white resin in day-lighted room. My intention was to create a kind of halation between the two exhibits using two rooms respectively.
First, I would like to introduce my solo exhibition in Mie since I have been developing its ideas for one year.
The exhibition takes place in Yanaguihara Yoshitatsu (1910-2004) Memorial Galleries with his permanent collection of modern figurative sculpture. When I first decided to study sculpture at the age of seven-teen, I visited exhibition of Yanaguihara for the first time at Kamakura –kan, annex of Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa. Then at Setagaya Art Museum I saw his series “Chanson de chien(Song of the Dog)”. I was then surrounded by these artworks, looking up in the midst of a circle room. It was there that I decided to go into the sculpture studying deeper, which was reminded at this occasion.
■ Michiko Nakatani : Mask in the Bright Day / Harden the Night
2019, Aug.9(Fri) – Sep. 1(Sun) at Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
■Michiko Nakatani: In Their Own Little Cosmos
2019.7.6 (Sat.) - 2019.9.29 (Sun.) at Yanagihara Yoshitatsu Memorial Galleries within Mie Prefecture Art Museum.
(cf: note1)
-About Yoshitatsu Yanagihara -
Yoshitatsu Yanagihara enjoys high critical esteem as one of the artists who have built unique worlds of their own in the field of figurative sculpture in the post-World War II period in Japan - the field which has drawn much from modern French sculpture .
Yanagihara was born in Kobe in 1910. Although he studied Japanese-Style painting for a while in Kyoto, he switched to sculpture when he saw photographs of the works of Rodin and Bourdelle. After graduating from the sculpture course at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (currently, the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music) Yanagihara showed his works with the Kokugakai group in the 1930s. In 1939, he participated in the formation of the sculpture section of the Shinseisakuha Kyokai group. Following a hiatus in the war years, Yanagihara started showing his works again as from 1946, right after the war. Unfortunately, however, he lost almost all his finished works in a fire in the same year.
In 1951, the Salon de Mai exhibition was held in Tokyo and Yanagihara’s artistic career changed drastically because of it. He was so powerfully moved by the modern French sculptures put on display at the exhibition that Yamagihara felt it imperative to go to Paris to seriously re-study the art of sculpture and make a fresh start as a sculptor. He stayed in Paris for nearly four years. Upon his return to Japan, Yanagihara demonstrated new possibilities for figurative sculpture in Japan via exhibitions of his works done in Paris, including Red-haired Woman and Negresse featuring bold deformation and modeling techniques.
Ever since, Yamagihara has unwaveringly devoted himself to the creation of highly important works characterized by tension-filled modeling and the spirit of humanistic inquiry into the true essence of nature and life - the works centering around female figures represented by Song of the Dog and the Milestone series works using crows and pigeons as motifs. Yanagihara’s artistic credo has remained unchanged to this day when he is over 80 years old.
First, I would like to introduce my solo exhibition in Mie since I have been developing its ideas for one year.
The exhibition takes place in Yanaguihara Yoshitatsu (1910-2004) Memorial Galleries with his permanent collection of modern figurative sculpture. When I first decided to study sculpture at the age of seven-teen, I visited exhibition of Yanaguihara for the first time at Kamakura –kan, annex of Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa. Then at Setagaya Art Museum I saw his series “Chanson de chien(Song of the Dog)”. I was then surrounded by these artworks, looking up in the midst of a circle room. It was there that I decided to go into the sculpture studying deeper, which was reminded at this occasion.
Michiko Nakatani "Drawing for Sailing out no.3" 2011, Polyurethane, plaster, pigments and iron Photo by Ai Hidaka
This work is the first piece I used black resin. After the disaster of 2011, I had an uncomfortable sensation with what I had done before. Thus, I impulsively inserting the black resin.
Michiko Nakatanai "mure no mori" 2011, resin, acrylic paint
This work is in the collection of BankART. I wanted the reliefs in positive mold to be thriving like a clump of forest. We pasted each scale on the body continuously.
■ Michiko Nakatani : Mask in the Bright Day / Harden the Night
2019, Aug.9(Fri) – Sep. 1(Sun) at Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
■Michiko Nakatani: In Their Own Little Cosmos
2019.7.6 (Sat.) - 2019.9.29 (Sun.) at Yanagihara Yoshitatsu Memorial Galleries within Mie Prefecture Art Museum.
(cf: note1)
-About Yoshitatsu Yanagihara -
Yoshitatsu Yanagihara enjoys high critical esteem as one of the artists who have built unique worlds of their own in the field of figurative sculpture in the post-World War II period in Japan - the field which has drawn much from modern French sculpture .
Yanagihara was born in Kobe in 1910. Although he studied Japanese-Style painting for a while in Kyoto, he switched to sculpture when he saw photographs of the works of Rodin and Bourdelle. After graduating from the sculpture course at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (currently, the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music) Yanagihara showed his works with the Kokugakai group in the 1930s. In 1939, he participated in the formation of the sculpture section of the Shinseisakuha Kyokai group. Following a hiatus in the war years, Yanagihara started showing his works again as from 1946, right after the war. Unfortunately, however, he lost almost all his finished works in a fire in the same year.
In 1951, the Salon de Mai exhibition was held in Tokyo and Yanagihara’s artistic career changed drastically because of it. He was so powerfully moved by the modern French sculptures put on display at the exhibition that Yamagihara felt it imperative to go to Paris to seriously re-study the art of sculpture and make a fresh start as a sculptor. He stayed in Paris for nearly four years. Upon his return to Japan, Yanagihara demonstrated new possibilities for figurative sculpture in Japan via exhibitions of his works done in Paris, including Red-haired Woman and Negresse featuring bold deformation and modeling techniques.
Ever since, Yamagihara has unwaveringly devoted himself to the creation of highly important works characterized by tension-filled modeling and the spirit of humanistic inquiry into the true essence of nature and life - the works centering around female figures represented by Song of the Dog and the Milestone series works using crows and pigeons as motifs. Yanagihara’s artistic credo has remained unchanged to this day when he is over 80 years old.