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Lot Essay
NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI: THE RHYME AND LAW OF NATURE
Born in 1935 in Tokyo, Natsuyuki Nakanishi attended Tokyo National University of Arts and Music where he obtained a BFA in oil painting in 1958. Nakanishi's career as an artist began in 1959 with a highly-acclaimed series of paintings entitled Rhyme. As a major figure of the 1960s Japanese avant-garde, Nakanishi was a founding member, along with Jiro Takamatsu and Genpei Akasegawa, of the experimental group Hi-Red Center, which was active from 1962-1964, exploring human interactions and issues of mass consumption. In 1965, he began collaborating with the Butoh dancers Tatsumi Hijikata and Kauo Ono, which would be very influential on his later work.
Nakanishi's signature pictorial language was established in the late 1970s after a journey re-evaluating painting and elemental form. Painted in 1987, L ℓR-87-1 (Lot 588) is a quintessential piece by Nakanishi.
The vertical purple pillar divides the painting LℓR-87-1 into two asymmetric spaces. On both sides, crisp and short golden-yellow criss-crossing hatched strokes interweave on a network of white and grey patterns. The construction appears to be formulaic, but in fact the subtle detailing results in a multitude of variation within the system.
MOTIF AND ARC
On top of this layer, a minute motif formed by one short purple stroke and four small olive green dots, like a tiny butterfly, is scattered freely but rhythmically. Several bunches of fine black threads bond to the butterfly-like motifs. The curve is the evolution of the bow and arrow on which Nakanishi attached at the painting's edge in the late 1970s; this physical object is transformed to a long curve, and later to a much subtle one, but the notion remains unchanged. The arc suggests the existence of a larger circle outside the boundary of the painting, alluding to the fact that the depiction we see is only a fragment of what exists in an infinite space which can never fully be captured.
'Let us remember that painting is a form that enters into time and space, and is momentarily discovered as a clue to the sensibility and thinking that divides fused time and space.' NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI
TIME–SPACE COMPRESSION
Instead of capturing both time and space, Nakanishi chooses reproduction of time and experience. This concept is common in traditional Chinese and Japanese paintings in which the space is dislocated and discontinuous. The time Nakanishi reproduces and represents in a single paint surface is a compressed one, composing various fragments of time into one surface. LℓR-87-1 is seemingly produced by overlapping of layers, the combination is in harmony while tension also arise at certain points.
Nakanishi declared that Cezanne attempted to see time rather than space,
'one imagines that this is how he achieved the juxtaposition of crackling colours and the extreme frontalisation of every thing, parts and whole. After him colour again retrogressed in the direction of the problem of space.' NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI
CONTINUALDISPLACEMENT
Nakanishi 's choice of purple colour is indicative of his focus on the relationship between colour and space.
'Applying the purple in the center slowly, slowly, as if making the pillar of purple grow.'
'Purple opens and scatters...' NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI
Nakanishi's pursuit of opening and scattering on paint surface suggests change and uncertainty.
The butterfly-like motif and flower petal strokes float and sweep as if carried along air currents, circulating gently and colliding percussively according to the laws of nature. This constantly changing space is illustrated by the motifs, composition, shadow, shallowdepth and gestural painted surfaces in Nakanishi's work. Such constant motion depicted is like the theory of clinamen which describes how when atoms move straight down through the void by their own weight, they deflect a bit in space at a random times and places. But if they were not in the habit of swerving, they would all fall straight down through the depth of the void, like drops of rain, and no collision would occur, nor would any below be produced among the atoms. Nakanishi's painting captures the invisible constant motion governed by the physical laws of nature.
REDISCOVERY OF TRADITION
Art with a strong national identity is critical to Japanese artists of the 1970s, who sought for differentiation from American and European artistic influence. Nakanishi's works demonstrate strong sense of Japanese aesthetic and rhythms which share common roots with traditional Japanese art including splashed ink, Ashide-e, byobu, Wakan Roeishu and a superb handling of the limited design motifs.
Nakanishi's systematic gestural painting is seemingly an evolution of splashed ink and rough brushstrokes in the Zen painting practice, brought together with the systematic arrangement of design motifs in traditional Japanese art, like Tsuru emaki, 1605-1615, by Hon'ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu. The distant drawing by an elongated paint brush innovated by Nakanishi provides swift brushstrokes to form the network of motifs.
The swift brushstrokes are reminiscent of cursive calligraphy, heightening a quality of freedom and expressiveness within a system which differs from the concepts on which the Art Informel and Abstract Expressionist movements are based. Nakanishi's painting is like Ashide-e, painting that incorporates motifs and script which were fashionable during the late Heian period (794-1185). Nakanishi's special display format of showing painting on a movable aisle is similar to byobu, the portable room dividers in magnificent castles of the Momoyama period (1573-1615) which invited calm contemplation.
Nakanishi passed away in 2016. He has had solo exhibitions at numerous museums, including the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (1985), the Seibu Museum (1989), the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (1995/2002-03), the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (1997), and the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art (2004/2012). His works have also been shown in notable group exhibitions such as Japanese Art After 1945: Scream against the Sky, Yokohama Museum of Art, Guggenheim Soho, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013).
All quote are from 'Devices that stand still forever in order to gaze lingeringly' by Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Chikuma Shobo.
Born in 1935 in Tokyo, Natsuyuki Nakanishi attended Tokyo National University of Arts and Music where he obtained a BFA in oil painting in 1958. Nakanishi's career as an artist began in 1959 with a highly-acclaimed series of paintings entitled Rhyme. As a major figure of the 1960s Japanese avant-garde, Nakanishi was a founding member, along with Jiro Takamatsu and Genpei Akasegawa, of the experimental group Hi-Red Center, which was active from 1962-1964, exploring human interactions and issues of mass consumption. In 1965, he began collaborating with the Butoh dancers Tatsumi Hijikata and Kauo Ono, which would be very influential on his later work.
Nakanishi's signature pictorial language was established in the late 1970s after a journey re-evaluating painting and elemental form. Painted in 1987, L ℓR-87-1 (Lot 588) is a quintessential piece by Nakanishi.
The vertical purple pillar divides the painting LℓR-87-1 into two asymmetric spaces. On both sides, crisp and short golden-yellow criss-crossing hatched strokes interweave on a network of white and grey patterns. The construction appears to be formulaic, but in fact the subtle detailing results in a multitude of variation within the system.
MOTIF AND ARC
On top of this layer, a minute motif formed by one short purple stroke and four small olive green dots, like a tiny butterfly, is scattered freely but rhythmically. Several bunches of fine black threads bond to the butterfly-like motifs. The curve is the evolution of the bow and arrow on which Nakanishi attached at the painting's edge in the late 1970s; this physical object is transformed to a long curve, and later to a much subtle one, but the notion remains unchanged. The arc suggests the existence of a larger circle outside the boundary of the painting, alluding to the fact that the depiction we see is only a fragment of what exists in an infinite space which can never fully be captured.
'Let us remember that painting is a form that enters into time and space, and is momentarily discovered as a clue to the sensibility and thinking that divides fused time and space.' NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI
TIME–SPACE COMPRESSION
Instead of capturing both time and space, Nakanishi chooses reproduction of time and experience. This concept is common in traditional Chinese and Japanese paintings in which the space is dislocated and discontinuous. The time Nakanishi reproduces and represents in a single paint surface is a compressed one, composing various fragments of time into one surface. LℓR-87-1 is seemingly produced by overlapping of layers, the combination is in harmony while tension also arise at certain points.
Nakanishi declared that Cezanne attempted to see time rather than space,
'one imagines that this is how he achieved the juxtaposition of crackling colours and the extreme frontalisation of every thing, parts and whole. After him colour again retrogressed in the direction of the problem of space.' NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI
CONTINUALDISPLACEMENT
Nakanishi 's choice of purple colour is indicative of his focus on the relationship between colour and space.
'Applying the purple in the center slowly, slowly, as if making the pillar of purple grow.'
'Purple opens and scatters...' NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI
Nakanishi's pursuit of opening and scattering on paint surface suggests change and uncertainty.
The butterfly-like motif and flower petal strokes float and sweep as if carried along air currents, circulating gently and colliding percussively according to the laws of nature. This constantly changing space is illustrated by the motifs, composition, shadow, shallowdepth and gestural painted surfaces in Nakanishi's work. Such constant motion depicted is like the theory of clinamen which describes how when atoms move straight down through the void by their own weight, they deflect a bit in space at a random times and places. But if they were not in the habit of swerving, they would all fall straight down through the depth of the void, like drops of rain, and no collision would occur, nor would any below be produced among the atoms. Nakanishi's painting captures the invisible constant motion governed by the physical laws of nature.
REDISCOVERY OF TRADITION
Art with a strong national identity is critical to Japanese artists of the 1970s, who sought for differentiation from American and European artistic influence. Nakanishi's works demonstrate strong sense of Japanese aesthetic and rhythms which share common roots with traditional Japanese art including splashed ink, Ashide-e, byobu, Wakan Roeishu and a superb handling of the limited design motifs.
Nakanishi's systematic gestural painting is seemingly an evolution of splashed ink and rough brushstrokes in the Zen painting practice, brought together with the systematic arrangement of design motifs in traditional Japanese art, like Tsuru emaki, 1605-1615, by Hon'ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu. The distant drawing by an elongated paint brush innovated by Nakanishi provides swift brushstrokes to form the network of motifs.
The swift brushstrokes are reminiscent of cursive calligraphy, heightening a quality of freedom and expressiveness within a system which differs from the concepts on which the Art Informel and Abstract Expressionist movements are based. Nakanishi's painting is like Ashide-e, painting that incorporates motifs and script which were fashionable during the late Heian period (794-1185). Nakanishi's special display format of showing painting on a movable aisle is similar to byobu, the portable room dividers in magnificent castles of the Momoyama period (1573-1615) which invited calm contemplation.
Nakanishi passed away in 2016. He has had solo exhibitions at numerous museums, including the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (1985), the Seibu Museum (1989), the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (1995/2002-03), the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (1997), and the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art (2004/2012). His works have also been shown in notable group exhibitions such as Japanese Art After 1945: Scream against the Sky, Yokohama Museum of Art, Guggenheim Soho, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013).
All quote are from 'Devices that stand still forever in order to gaze lingeringly' by Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Chikuma Shobo.