Lot Essay
Inokuma Genichiro was born in Takamatsu City in Kagawa Prefecture. He studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts from 1922-26 under the western-style painter Fujishima Takeji (1865-1943). Inokuma showed his work from 1927-34 in annual Japan National Exhibitions and in 1935 he became an exhibition judge. A founder of the Shin-Seisaku Kyokai in 1935, he exhibited with this artists' association from 1935-55, and he taught painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts from 1936-40. Inokuma showed his work at the Salon des Independants in Paris in 1938 and traveled in Europe throughout 1940, making a special trip to visit Matisse in Nice, an artist whom he much admired. Matisse's influence is apparent in Inokuma's work of this period in its simplified means and use of color (see Portrait of the artist's wife sold in these rooms on October 17, 1989, sale #6898, lot 259; and Woman with raised hand sold in these rooms on March 29, 1990, sale #7028, lot 55).
From 1945-55 Inokuma directed his own art school in Japan. He exhibited his work in the Salon de Mai in Paris in 1952. Among his many mural commissions are those for Keio University in Tokyo in 1947, for the Maruie Hotel in Nagoya in 1952, for Tokyo's Central Station in 1953, for the New York Takashimaya store in 1958 and for the Municipal Building in Kagawa Prefecture. In 1952 he won the Mainichi Cultural and Artistic Award for his mural paintings.
Inokuma has been in many group shows including the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1952, 1958, 1961, and 1964, the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1951 and 1959, and a water color exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1955. He moved to the United States in 1955 and established residence in New York City, where he had ten one-man shows at the Willard Gallery from 1956-72. In 1963-64 he was represented in Contemporary Japanese Painting and Sculpture, an exhibition sponsored by the American Federation of Arts.
In the 1950s Inokuma's work, like that of many artists internationally, developed gradually from a form of lyrical representation into pure abstraction. In a progression from the head-on, dynamic cityscapes of the 1960s (as the painting offered here), Inokuma's work of the 1970s moved to a more cerebral and cooler abstraction using the same subject matter. In 1975, for health reasons, Inokuma left the United States and thereafter divided his year between Japan and Hawaii. His Hawaiian paintings of the 1980s reflect yet another vantage point, that of space and its exploration. The Honolulu Academy of Art held an exhibition of Inokuma's work in the mid 1980s.
Inokuma is most well-known for paintings he produced in his early years in New York, such as City Composition (3) offered here. One of Inokumas best-known paintings, Wall Street of 1966, (collection of the San Francisco Museum of Art) is similar in style to the one offered here, and was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965 and other venues in the United States. Influenced by its pace, the rhythmic grid of its streets and sidewalks, and the dynamics of its skyscrapers, Inokuma's paintings of this period are a visual interpretation of New York City. These paintings, so clearly related to the sensory experience of city life, have also been compared to the pattern of kongasuri, a dark blue and white-splashed kimono cloth, thus evoking two very different epochs and cultures.
The work of Inokuma Genichiro is in the collections of the National Museum of Art in Tokyo, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Honolulu Academy of Art, among many other private and museum collections.
In 1991 the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art in Marugame City, Kagawa Prefecture, opened with an exhibition that spanned the artists' 70-year career.
From 1945-55 Inokuma directed his own art school in Japan. He exhibited his work in the Salon de Mai in Paris in 1952. Among his many mural commissions are those for Keio University in Tokyo in 1947, for the Maruie Hotel in Nagoya in 1952, for Tokyo's Central Station in 1953, for the New York Takashimaya store in 1958 and for the Municipal Building in Kagawa Prefecture. In 1952 he won the Mainichi Cultural and Artistic Award for his mural paintings.
Inokuma has been in many group shows including the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1952, 1958, 1961, and 1964, the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1951 and 1959, and a water color exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1955. He moved to the United States in 1955 and established residence in New York City, where he had ten one-man shows at the Willard Gallery from 1956-72. In 1963-64 he was represented in Contemporary Japanese Painting and Sculpture, an exhibition sponsored by the American Federation of Arts.
In the 1950s Inokuma's work, like that of many artists internationally, developed gradually from a form of lyrical representation into pure abstraction. In a progression from the head-on, dynamic cityscapes of the 1960s (as the painting offered here), Inokuma's work of the 1970s moved to a more cerebral and cooler abstraction using the same subject matter. In 1975, for health reasons, Inokuma left the United States and thereafter divided his year between Japan and Hawaii. His Hawaiian paintings of the 1980s reflect yet another vantage point, that of space and its exploration. The Honolulu Academy of Art held an exhibition of Inokuma's work in the mid 1980s.
Inokuma is most well-known for paintings he produced in his early years in New York, such as City Composition (3) offered here. One of Inokumas best-known paintings, Wall Street of 1966, (collection of the San Francisco Museum of Art) is similar in style to the one offered here, and was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965 and other venues in the United States. Influenced by its pace, the rhythmic grid of its streets and sidewalks, and the dynamics of its skyscrapers, Inokuma's paintings of this period are a visual interpretation of New York City. These paintings, so clearly related to the sensory experience of city life, have also been compared to the pattern of kongasuri, a dark blue and white-splashed kimono cloth, thus evoking two very different epochs and cultures.
The work of Inokuma Genichiro is in the collections of the National Museum of Art in Tokyo, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Honolulu Academy of Art, among many other private and museum collections.
In 1991 the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art in Marugame City, Kagawa Prefecture, opened with an exhibition that spanned the artists' 70-year career.