Mitsuru Watanabe was born in Aomori, Japan in 1953. He has participated in solo and group shows in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. In 1993 he was awarded Grand Prize at the 2nd Ryohei Koiso Grand Prize Exhibition, and in 1996 received the Aomori Arts and Culture Incentive Award. Watanabe participated in Christie’s Asian Contemporary Art auction (day sale) on the 25th of November.
ne of his daughters, either Yukiko or Naoko, positioned in the center of an imaginary, traditional Japanese or postmodern world, is the recurring theme in Watanabe’s work. Watanabe treats his subject matter in great detail, with apparent technical ease and sensitivity. Studying the paintings closely, one may guess Yukiko’s severe gestures and Naoko’s nerve; they are not just pictured in ethereal landscapes, but they add life to their surroundings, only by wandering around, relaxing and picking up flowers.
Watanabe’s experiments are playful and his referential approach respective and gentle
At first the girls engage in classic Japanese scenes; they are getting acquainted with their roots, being juxtaposed to eternal mountains (e.g. Fuji, Hakkoda), and the past meets contemporary. Yukiko and Naoko open then up to the west, their background imitates a western masterpiece and they join in in a contrast of cultures. Watanabe’s experiments are playful and his referential approach respective and gentle. But he can never disguise his pride for the little girls that in large-scale proportions dominate the familiar landscapes, securing their own place to the art narrative.
Yukiko may often seem detached from the environment, absorbed, as a genuine romantic character, in her thoughts and readings, and perhaps that is the interaction appropriate to an Ingres backdrop; Naoko, on the other hand, communicates directly with the landscape and sets sail for an imaginary journey, defying time and space. She travels light, with no more than the essential school kit, her uniform and Hello Kitty bag.
Throughout Watanabe’s creative days both girls stay ageless and thus everlasting innocent, but from a toddler, Naoko gradually matures in a conceptual way; although in the beginning she shares the same allusive Baroque and Renaissance oil paintings’ background as her sister (i.e. Pietàs, Botticelli’s Primavera etc.), later on she decides to jump in the painting. Naoko confidently replaces Venus in Botticelli’s Birth and eventually enters the 20th century, strolling along Gauguin’s forests and the sky of Magritte. With eyes wide open, she looks around suspiciously. But in no case is she intimidated by the imposing context of the territory. Unlike Yukiko, she is not modest, and does not hesitate to take a bath or a nap, squeeze mythical creatures, tame the beasts, act as the queen of the jungle, and domineer the painting in every way, at her own pace.
Throughout Watanabe’s creative days both girls stay ageless and thus everlasting innocent
While in previous Christie’s auctions Yukiko was the central figure (In GYOSHU’s Garden/Yukiko with Camellia (2009) fetched HK$375,000 (US$48,605) back in 2009), Naoko is the star of Watanabe’s latest paintings auctioned in Hong Kong this Saturday. Stolen Rousseau (2011) and the lovely Flower Hunting in Rousseau’s forest (2011), are both appropriations of Rousseau’s paintings (i.e. Negro Attacked by a Jaguar and The Dream, respectively), estimated at HK$100,000- 150,000 (US$12,800- 19,200). Naoko Playing in Bosch’s Last Judgment (2012) is inspired by Bosch’s triptych Garden of Earthly Delights central panel, estimated at HK$80,000- 120,000 (US$10,300- 15,400) and quite similar to the earlier Naoko Exploring Purgatory (2010), that was recently used as the main PIA Film Festival visual.
Without any doubt, Naoko is set to dazzle them all.
For more information on the artist, visit Gallery Gyokuei.
Photo Credits:
Mitsuru Watanabe, Naoko takes a nap in Mt.Yoshino, 2011, Oil on canvas, 72.7×90.9cm, Pia film festival main visual © Gallery Gyokuei
By Marw Kouvatsou
