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Lot Essay
Tokuro Sakamoto was born in Shioyama, Yamanashi Prefecture in 1975. After graduating from the nihonga deparment at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1999, he enrolled in the nihonga painting seminar at Hayami Geijutsu Gakuen until 2001. Since then he has been holding exhibitions both in Japan and abroad as well as exhibiting actively at art fairs
Tokuro Sakamoto employs quotidian scenes as his motifs, such as the traffic signs in Breath; & Breath (Lot 1789), and the athletic field and apartment building in Breath; & Breath (Lot 1790). With minimalist arragngement and delicate colours, these scenes evoke a deja vu experience, conveying a dream-like visage imbued with simplicitiy and unaffectedness. The uninhabitated landscape is serene and peaceful, as if all the confrontation and oppression between people that we experience, and the noise and anxiety that we endure in reality never existed. The large areas of blank in the composition form a sharp visual contrast with the concrete objects in the paintings, the two closely interact and complement with each other, transfiguring between the state of void and solid. While at first sight, the traffic signs, architecture and trees may seem the primary subjects of the paintings, upon a subtle visual conversion, the infinite sky becomes the solid component of the painting. The interchange between void and solid echoes the relationship between humans and their environment, which is simultaneously harmonic and confrontational, prompting viewers to reconsider the fragile balance between the two.
Tokuro Sakamoto employs quotidian scenes as his motifs, such as the traffic signs in Breath; & Breath (Lot 1789), and the athletic field and apartment building in Breath; & Breath (Lot 1790). With minimalist arragngement and delicate colours, these scenes evoke a deja vu experience, conveying a dream-like visage imbued with simplicitiy and unaffectedness. The uninhabitated landscape is serene and peaceful, as if all the confrontation and oppression between people that we experience, and the noise and anxiety that we endure in reality never existed. The large areas of blank in the composition form a sharp visual contrast with the concrete objects in the paintings, the two closely interact and complement with each other, transfiguring between the state of void and solid. While at first sight, the traffic signs, architecture and trees may seem the primary subjects of the paintings, upon a subtle visual conversion, the infinite sky becomes the solid component of the painting. The interchange between void and solid echoes the relationship between humans and their environment, which is simultaneously harmonic and confrontational, prompting viewers to reconsider the fragile balance between the two.