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Lot Essay
Born in Tokyo in 1936, as a young man Key Hiraga worked at a tattoo parlour in the Asakusa, a district notorious for hunters of sensual pleasures. In 1963 he received the prestigious Shell Prize, which allowed him to travel to Paris to study for a year, during which time he focused on painting scenes from the raunchy society of Pigalle, a neighbourhood notorious for the Moulin Rouge cabaret. From these experiences was born Hiraga's unique vocabulary of voyeuristic and surreal imagery in garish technicolor.
Opium Poppy (Lot 140), depicts a floridly dressed gangster and nun seated at a table bearing the bisected body of a woman; both the man and nun look on through hungry eyes, though we are unable decipher if their desire is sexual or something more terrifying. At first glance, Night Cherry Blossom in Kioso (Lot 141), appears to depict three scantily clad women enjoying the blooming trees; it soon becomes clear that in the tangle of limbs, two men are intertwined with the group, gazing lustily at their companions. Similarly, in Flowery Times and Thereafter – Dedicated to Motojiro Kajii and Distinguished Guest at Shichifukurou (Lot 142), exposed women recline in the foreground while the men over look from behind. Each of these works not only expresses Hiraga's focus on exuberant eroticism, but also the often obfuscated sense of violence or danger that lurks closely, too closely, behind.
Opium Poppy (Lot 140), depicts a floridly dressed gangster and nun seated at a table bearing the bisected body of a woman; both the man and nun look on through hungry eyes, though we are unable decipher if their desire is sexual or something more terrifying. At first glance, Night Cherry Blossom in Kioso (Lot 141), appears to depict three scantily clad women enjoying the blooming trees; it soon becomes clear that in the tangle of limbs, two men are intertwined with the group, gazing lustily at their companions. Similarly, in Flowery Times and Thereafter – Dedicated to Motojiro Kajii and Distinguished Guest at Shichifukurou (Lot 142), exposed women recline in the foreground while the men over look from behind. Each of these works not only expresses Hiraga's focus on exuberant eroticism, but also the often obfuscated sense of violence or danger that lurks closely, too closely, behind.