Tanaka Atsuko, "Untitled"

 

  Last week when selecting the image, I happened across this painting.  It made me curious enough to find the artist to discover more.          Upon doing a Google search, I discovered there are two Tanaka Atsuko's, the other being a current Japanese singer.  But our artist (1932 - 2005)  was a pioneering Japanese woman pushing the limits of her art.  She lived her entire life in Japan and received little international attention until the early 2000s.
    She was involved with a group, in the 1950s, called the Gutai Movement.  With them she created "happenings" and especially hers, were playful, whimsical inventions that resulted in a product. This group, and particularly Atsuko, were ahead of their time.  Today it is referred to as performance art.   
     This untitled work was done in 1964, just before Atsuko's personal life was to change.  Little is written about this painting, but the timing alone leaves us wondering if it was part of a live performance, or simply a beautiful work created on its own merits.  
  So what have we here?  I think it unwise to over speculate, but we see about seven "wheels" in different colors overlapping to a certain degree, then with some Jackson Pollock style running lines swirling it all together, and all on a near white background.  Every color in the color wheel is incorporated, with lines ranging from thick to very thin.   I find it very intense, but engaging.  I am not certain I could meet with this image everyday, but still I find it fun and certainly a challenge.
    Untitled was created in 1964.  It is an enamel on canvas and measures 35 5/8 inches by 28 1/2 inches.  It is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

  Make Art a part of your life, it's a beautiful thing to do.    

Comments

  1. Char HarguthJanuary 12, 2021 at 8:58 AM

    Oh my, not quite a Pollock! The "wheels" give it a solid base for the composition. Primary colors dominate, and the other lines are continuous. Performance art is an interesting concept, new to me. I had to look her up! Is this in response to her divorce and going back to live with her parents?? It leaves me feeling inadequate, so I won't try to "over speculate"!! It's always good to be challenged. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wayne Thiebaud, Sunset Streets

Image
   In giving title to this landscape, California artist, Wayne Thiebaud not only provides the location, but also the time of day.  Knowing that Thiebaud is a California artist provides the last clue to guessing the probably location.  Smartly, The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art purchased this painting for its permanent collection in 1986, a year after it was completed.  Sunset Streets is an oil on canvas measuring 48" x 35".      Wayne Thiebaud was born in 1920 and resides in California. He is one of several artists creating a distinct California aesthetic using heavy pigment and exaggerated color.   He is best known for his commonplace objects, figures, and landscapes. of which this is a perfect example.    The composition of this work is amazing.  Right down the center, at a slight tilt is this blue-black stripe, K shape, beginning with a heavy base and capped with a large triangle of sorts.  The painting is a geometry lover's dream, completely dedicated to ever
Read more

Nature Abhors A Vacuum, Helen Frankenthraller

Image
  Today let us look at an acrylic painting on canvas by American artist Helen Frankenthraller (1928-2011).    Nature Abhors a Vacuum is a huge work of art measuring 103" high, 112" wide.  This is over 8 feet high and 9 feet long!  You can stand next to it at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; and to do so would completely immerse yourself in this huge spread of color.   Nature Abhors a Vacuum was painted in 1973 and is a perfect example of a school of painting Frankenthraller helped develop called color field painting.  Here she stretched raw unprimed canvas on the floor and poured thinned acrylic paint on it.  In doing so she created floating fields of translucent color.  Being that the canvas was raw, the paint stuck to the fabric more like it was dyed, than brushed on. It was an exciting and new process!    Our title, Nature Abhors a Vacuum  immediately indicates a landscape, however I think it a disservice to confine our reaction to so simple an understan
Read more

Childe Hassam "The Avenue in Rain"

Image
    I probably should have saved this for the 4th of July, but that is a little far off and this work is among Childe Hassam's finest.      I have known of Childe Hassam (1859 - 1935) for a very long time, but only recently did Wikimedia straighten me out about the correct way to pronounce his first name.  It seems the "e" is silent; and his last name is pronounced as written, with two syllables.        From what I have read, Hassam was a pretty sharp guy, and possibly a little  arrogant.  He created 3,000 some works of art in his career and lived his entire adult life on the proceeds of their sale.  This is quite remarkable.  Most artists, (at least before 1930) had to supplement their income by teaching, commissioned portraits or careers outside the art field.  But Hassam figured out not only how to market his work, but also what subjects would be popular.  Timing is always a big issue, and he was at the forefront of marketing impressionist paintings to Americans.      
Read more