Makoto aida tv#

Hisashi Tenmyouya, Tattoo Man, 2002, acrylic, gold leaf, wood, 59.8 x 42cm Kill with a Single Blow, Special Attack Party (2000) mixes motorbike gang menace with the kind of Rimpa art flourishes associated with the Edo-period artist Ogata Korin. Elsewhere, Tenmyouya takes motifs from graffiti and uses them for elaborately decorated works.

Makoto aida tv#

Tattoo Man (2002), an acrylic painting on gold-leaf-decorated wood, brings nihonga to a couple of demographics it bypassed, casting the TV superhero Ultraman as a gangster with geek appeal. The samurai spirit is also strong in the art of Hisashi Tenmyouya, although here it is mixed with elements of various subcultures, including yakuza, otaku and street. This trick of hiding modern technological elements inside what are ostensibly very traditional scenes is repeated in other works like The Nine Aspects (2003), where the steeds of the various samurai turn out to be motorbikes with horses’ heads. Instead of nature, we sense a world contrived for some ulterior motive, whether to entertain or entrap. It is only when you look closer that you notice that some of the twigs and branches are wired and hinged, giving the work a slightly sinister Westworld feel.

His Flowers (2003) shows a broken tree sending out new shoots, the kind of subject matter you would expect from nihonga. Akira Yamaguchi is the most conventional, using oil and canvas to mimic old Japanese screen and scroll paintings. The three artists at this exhibit display different facets of what has been called a “Neo-Nihonga” movement. Takahashi’s private collection, offered up an intriguing selection of contemporary art, including works like Makoto Aida’s Picture of an Air Raid on New York City (1996)-a beautifully-produced six-panel folding screen-and Giant Salamander (2003), both of which owed an obvious debt to nihonga.Īkira Yamaguchi, The Nine Aspects (detail), 2003, canvas, oil, 73 x 244cm Then, last summer, the Ueno Royal Museum’s “Neoteny” show, sourced from Mr. Back in 2006, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo’s “From Nihonga to Nihonga” exhibition showcased several young artists who mixed traditional aesthetics and techniques with a modern sensibility. The exhibition, featuring 18 works from three artists heavily influenced but not constrained by Japan’s nihonga traditions, is the latest offering at the Takahashi Collection, the art space created by Japan’s best known collector, Ryutaro Takahashi.Īlthough the works are daring, genre-confounding and even avant-garde in their retro nihonga way, this is not something entirely new. That’s probably the best way to describe much of the art at “Makoto Aida + Hisashi Tenmyouya + Akira Yamaguchi.” But then, categories can sometimes be confusing, especially when confronted with the sort of raw talent that likes to stir things up.

Liddell.“Edgy” is not normally a word associated with nihonga painting.

Makoto Aida, Blender, 2001, canvas, acrylic 290 x 210.5cm.