Komatsu Hitoshi

Komatsu Hitoshi ( Japanese 小松 均 ; born January 19, 1901 in Yamagata Prefecture ; died August 23, 1989 ) was a Japanese painter of the Nihonga direction during the Shōwa period .

life and work

Komatsu Hitoshi went to Tokyo in 1920 to become a painter. While he was studying at the Kawabata Art School ( 川端 画 学校 , Kawabata gagakkō ), he carried newspapers to earn a living. Under the influence of his fellow student Fujii Shigeki, he integrated Fauvist elements into his Nihonga painting. He won his first prize in 1923 at the Chūō Bijutsu ( 中央 美術 ) exhibition , followed by a prize the following year at the 4th exhibition of the “National Creative Association” ( 国画 創作 協会 , Kokuga sōsaku kyōkai ) for his picture “Villagers at a funeral in late autumn ”( 晩 秋 の 野 に 死 骸 を 送 る 村人 た ち , Banshū no no ni shigai o okuru murabito-tachi ). In 1925 he moved to Kyoto and became a student of Tsuchida Bakusen . It was also the time when he became interested in the line drawings by his friend Fujita Nobumasa in the Kyoto office of the Asahi newspaper .

In 1926, Komatsu won the National Creative Association Award and continued to exhibit there. He won a high award at the 11th Teiten exhibition and also exhibited at the Inten. In 1934 he founded the "Study Society for New Nihonga" ( 新 日本 画 研究 会 , Shin nihonga kenkyūkai ) with Yoshioka Kenji , Fukuda Toyoshirō , Iwahashi Eien and others .

Komatsu supported the founding of other artists' associations such as Bokujin-kai, Sanju-sha and Sanan-kai, but only exhibited at the Inten after the Pacific War . In 1946 he won the Nihon Bijutsuin Prize and was accepted there as a member. In 1965 he received the Grand Prize of the Minister of Culture, in 1975 the Promotion Prize of the Minister of Culture ( 藝術 選 奨 文 部 大臣 賞 , Geijutsu senshō mombu daijin shō ) and in 1986 he became a person with special cultural merits .

At first, Komatsu's works showed the structure and colors of his teacher Tsuchida, later he designed his pictures almost abstractly, almost only in gray. Representative works are the two-part screen "Catfish" ( 鯰 , Namazu ) and the " Mogami River Series" ( 最 上 川 連 作 , Mogami-gawa rensaku ), four images on two large screens, in the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto .

Komatsu's studio, located in the green on the northeastern edge of Kyoto, has been converted into a memorial museum.

Remarks

1. ↑ Teiten ( 帝 展 ) is the abbreviation for the annual state art exhibition ( 帝国 美術展 覧 会 , Teikoku bijutsuin tenrankai ) between 1919 and 1935.
2. ↑ Inten ( 院 展 ) is the abbreviation for the annual art exhibition of Nihon Bijutsuin .

literature

• Tazawa, Yutaka: Komatsu Hitoshi . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art . Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .

Web links (images)

• Catfish, 1931
• In the shade, 1934
• Cloud fields on the mountain, 1985

Web links

• Komatsu Memorial Museum
• Komatsu's CV, Japanese

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Komatsu is the family name, Hitoshi the first name.