2004 Autumn - Byobu Intro - Tatsuya Ishiodori - Motoko Maio
Tatsuya Ishiodori, Japanese-style painter
photography by Tadayuki Naito
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Born in Manchuria in 1945, Ishiodori earned his master's degree from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1970. He received the Spring Exhibition Award during the Spring Soga-ten Art Competition in 1976. Since 1981, he has held more than 30 one-man shows. Many exhibitions since 1998 have featured his 54 large-scale original paintings to illustrate Jakucho Setouchi's retelling of The Tale of Genji. In 2000, Ishiodori held his first overseas one-man show at Mitsukoshi-Etoile in Paris. His work has also been exhibited in group shows in France, China, and Korea.
www.ishiodori.co.jp |
"Discover the new by studying the past"
Surrounded by the sea in all directions, Japanese have always lived closely with nature, a fact reflected in their paintings dating back to ancient times. Tatsuya Ishiodori's art is characterized by a duality. Some of his works depict the beauty of nature in a universal and traditional style using motifs such as flora, birds, and seasonal change, long-cherished by the Japanese. Other works, however, render a more instantaneous and abstract style of beauty, as in his paintings expressing ephemeral elements of nature with lines. The former includes paintings like Autumn Fields, which presents the transient, evanescent beauty of the season. Summer Showers exemplifies the latter, portraying rain with lines and expressing the fleeting ambience of the seasons through color.
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Yudachi (Summer Showers)
A pair of four-panel folding screens (170cm by 320cm), Tatsuya Ishiodori, 2000
Ishiodori shows his true merit in this abstract style of painting, which stirs the imagination of the beholder. A shower in which the sky clouds over and torrential rain suddenly lashes down exudes the essence of summer in Japan. Subtle hues of blues and purples represent the scenery shrouded in rain. Depiction of falling rain in silver, slanted lines is a unique technique employed only in Nihonga (Japanese-style painting); it conjures up the real sensation of a sudden shower. Viewers can sense the sound and touch of the rain and the smell of the summer air. These photos show the painted sides of a pair of folding screens. |
Ishiodori rediscovered the beauty of traditional Japanese nature themes when he illustrated the writer-nun Jakucho Setouchi's retelling of The Tale of Genji in 1998. While working in his Paris atelier, he came to realize that the abstract, symbolic, and decorative nature of Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) is unparalleled in the world of painting. Thereafter, his pieces such as SHINJUKU became very dynamic, using smudged black ink and iwaenogu (pigments made from ground semiprecious stones) on Japanese paper. This work has a completely different sensibility from Western abstract paintings.
He strongly believes that by choosing the techniques specific to Japanese-style painting and emphasizing Japanese sensitivities, he will be able to generate a "new expression of beauty," transcending the framework of traditional Japanese-style painting. He feels he must "discover new things by studying the past." This is why Ishiodori is renowned as "a Rimpa school artist for the Heisei era," meaning he epitomizes characteristics of the 17th-century painting style but in a way that reflects the present day.
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Akino (Autumn Fields)
A pair of six-panel folding screens (103cm by 272.5cm), Tatsuya Ishiodori, 2003
This work was painted on old, unused screens once owned by the Japanese-style painter Insho Domoto (1891-1975). It is an example of the traditional yamato-e style of painting, characterized by native subject matter and themes associated with the four seasons. Depicted here are two seasons—summer and autumn. The verdure of nandina (an evergreen shrub) and red of autumn foliage present a more mysterious charm when viewed in low light or simple settings. When lined up horizontally, the pair of six-panel screens evokes a scene of expansive fields. The underlying pattern, laid down with a wooden batik stamp, creates an effective contrast between the painting and its background. The warmth and textured look of the pattern enhance the overall richness of the painting. Applying red pigment over gold leaf and verdigris pigment over platinum leaf are typical elements of Ishiodori's style. |
Because of their folding panels, byobu screens can offer enhanced perspectives: closer in the center, more distant and spread-out toward the ends. They present an expansive world on a delicate material like Japanese paper, with imagery added in black ink and pigments made from minerals. Endowed with both delicacy and boldness, folding screens are perhaps the most exceptional mode of expression among all of Japanese-style painting. As light and versatile pieces of furniture, they must be attractive both front and back. With this inherent duality coexisting in one piece, the folding screen is a medium of artistic expression unique to Japan.
Tatsuya Ishiodori's Nihonga exhibition
To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Nagano Broadcasting System, an exhibition focusing on Ishiodori's folding screens and new works will be held at Kitano Museum of Art in Nagano prefecture. In addition to his screens, framed pieces will be displayed, totaling 38 pieces in all. After the show, one of his works will be hung at the Kitano New York Hotel in mid-Manhattan.
www.kitano.com
October 23 - November 23 , 2004
Kitano Cultural Center, Kitano Museum of Art Annex
1603-1 Nishigo-cho, Nagano
Tel. 026-235-4111
Articles from the 2004 AUTUMN issue:
Articles from the 2004 AUTUMN issue:
Kateigaho International Edition Issues:
2005 SUMMER - 2005 SPRING - 2005 WINTER
2004 AUTUMN - 2004 SUMMER - 2004 SPRING - 2004 WINTER
2003 AUTUMN - INAUGURAL ISSUE
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