Yamaguchi Takeo

Yamaguchi Takeo ( Japanese 山口 長 男 ; born November 23, 1902 in Seoul , died April 27, 1983 ) was a Japanese painter in the Yōga style and an early representative of abstract painting in Japan.

Live and act

Yamaguchi studied briefly at the “Studio for Western Painting Hongō” ( 本 郷 洋 画 研究所 , Hongō yōga kenkyūjo ) and at the “Kawabata School of Painting” ( 川端 画 学校 , Kawabata gagakkō ). Then he studied at the Tōkyō bijutsu gakkō, the forerunner of the Geidai , in the department of western painting under Wada Eisaku and graduated there in 1927. In the same year he founded together with his painter friends Inokuma Gen'ichirō ( 猪 熊 弦 一郎 ; 1902-1993), Ushijima Noriyuki , Okada Kenzō , Ogisu Takanori and others the Jōto group.

Yamaguchi then traveled with Ogisu to Paris and visited Saeki Yūzō there . While in Paris, he often visited the sculptor Ossip Zadkine in his studio. In 1930 he returned to Japan.

From 1932 onwards, Yamaguchi began to show his work at the Nika-kai ( 二 科 会 ) exhibitions, and his avant-garde paintings were shown the following year. In 1936 his pictures “Form” ( 体 , Tai) and “Outstretched” ( 臥 , Ga) were shown at the 12th exhibition of Nika-kai. In 1938 he showed "Form A" ( 形 A , Katachi A ) and became a Fellow of the Nika-kai. In the same year he supported, together with Yoshihara Jirō and Katsura Yukiko, the establishment of the artists' association "Club Room No. 9" ( 9 室 会 , Kyūshitsu-kai ), which held its first exhibition the following year.

After the World War , Yamaguchi became a member of the reformed Nika-kai, at whose exhibitions he showed his pictures until 1962. At their 32nd exhibition in 1947 he showed the pictures "A", "B", "C" and "D" and received an award for them. He also participated in other exhibitions, such as that of the "United Art Group" ( 美術 団 体 連 合 , Bijutsu dantai rengō ) and the "Exhibition of Contemporary Art" ( 現代 美術展 , Gendai Nihon bijtsu-ten ) in 1954.

Yamaguchi won an award for his work "Form" ( 形 , Katachi ). He showed pictures at the 1955 Biennale of São Paulo , 1956 at the Biennale di Venezia and 1958 at the Guggenheim International Art Exhibition. - During this time Yamaguchi founded the “Japan Abstract Art Club” together with Hasegawa Saburō , Murai Masanari and others.

From 1954 Yamaguchi was a professor at the private art college Musashino ( 武 蔵 野 美術 学園 , Musashino bijutsu gakuen ), from 1982 to 1983 its president. In 1962 he was awarded the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs ( 芸 術 選 奨 , Geijutsu senshō ). In 1980, together with the sculptor Horiuchi Masakazu (1911–2001), he was honored with an exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo .

Yamaguchi's representative works, among which the later ones can be assigned to the hard-edge style, include “Teich” ( 池 , Ike ; 1936), “Structure” ( 構成 , Kōsei ; 1955), “Obscurity” ( 漠 , Baku ; 1972) and "connection" ( 合 , Gō ; 1975).

literature

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

Web links

• Yamaguchi's painting “Structure”, 1955