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Lot Essay
AN ARTIST WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE BLUES
A graduate of the Osaka College of Music, Aine Kinashi's period of participation in the Gutai Art Association was shorter than some; his abstract paintings exhibit a spontaneous and rhythmic beauty. His choice of colour palettes - far from colourful - exudes a traditional Japanese charm and atmosphere, making him a stylistically distinct proponent of the Gutai school.
The use of extremely pure colours provides an ideal path toward letting pigments exhibit their own distinct characters. In the 1960s, the New Realism style took shape in the West, and just as French Artist Yves Klein was producing his famous paintings in pure blue tones (Fig. 1), Kinashi independently arrived at the same point by elevating his blues to a unique status. Yet his work differs from Klein's monochromatic compositions; in Untitled (Lot 93), Kinashi's intensely appealing colour layers bring life to every inch of the canvas. Cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, and Prussian blue intermix in the subtle gradations of tone between darker and lighter blues, and subside finally into the deep blues of the underpainting (Fig. 2).
Despite the boldness of Kinashi's Untitled, viewers still find the fine brushwork and richness of texture. Its expression of texture is achieved through the daubing and smearing, the buildup of multiple layers, and scraping techniques of the artist as he creates colour blocks of varying sizes. Brushstrokes from the left and right of the canvas gravitate toward the middle, as if inviting viewers into the depths of the ocean, while gazing upwards; they glimpse hints of sunlight through rippling waves of water. Pleasing rhythms emerge from the interlacing of broad strokes with more finely detailed areas, like Kandinsky's appropriation of musicality and rhythm in his post-war abstract expressionist work.
A SYMPHONY OF COLOUR
Within a few years Kinashi began adding further colour elements to his work. While adhering to the blocked-out spaces and abstract compositions of his earlier monochromatic series, new colours heightened even further their sense of rhythm, and we feel even more strongly the artist's attempts to explore the musical world through his work (Fig. 3).
Kinashi's 1966 Untitled (Lot 92) strongly projects its freedom and melody through its brushwork and colour, even as his careful adjustments of intensity (or chroma) in the work produces an overall atmosphere of calmness. The separate, contrasting blocks of colour tend toward rather soft, neutral tones, contrasting with each other but also providing mutual support and balance. Broad strokes set forth flowing outlines that move through the center of the canvas in silver-blue, while the abrupt interruption of inky black, set off against the other colours, enhances spatial depth and adds weight and thickness. Organic forms and colours produce visually juxtaposed, interlocking, and complementary impressions that echo pleasingly throughout the canvas.
LYRICAL, FREEHAND EASTERN ABSTRACTION
This artist tended towards using soft and subdued colours, evoking a uniquely traditional, Japanese kind of grace and charm that has been difficult for Western artists to capture and express. Kinashi's subtly textured layers of colour, however, shine like crystal faces in reflected light when viewed at close range, evoking connections with the mineral colour pigments the Japanese strove to develop (Fig. 4). These pigments, refined from ores with inherent natural colour, contain particles that enhance texture, and Japanese artists working in this medium have also frequently added large areas of gold and silver leaf chips. Despite working in oils, Kinashi still achieves a pearly, reflective effect, accomplishing a modern transformation of traditional Eastern art while also producing an incomparable individual style of his own.
A graduate of the Osaka College of Music, Aine Kinashi's period of participation in the Gutai Art Association was shorter than some; his abstract paintings exhibit a spontaneous and rhythmic beauty. His choice of colour palettes - far from colourful - exudes a traditional Japanese charm and atmosphere, making him a stylistically distinct proponent of the Gutai school.
The use of extremely pure colours provides an ideal path toward letting pigments exhibit their own distinct characters. In the 1960s, the New Realism style took shape in the West, and just as French Artist Yves Klein was producing his famous paintings in pure blue tones (Fig. 1), Kinashi independently arrived at the same point by elevating his blues to a unique status. Yet his work differs from Klein's monochromatic compositions; in Untitled (Lot 93), Kinashi's intensely appealing colour layers bring life to every inch of the canvas. Cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, and Prussian blue intermix in the subtle gradations of tone between darker and lighter blues, and subside finally into the deep blues of the underpainting (Fig. 2).
Despite the boldness of Kinashi's Untitled, viewers still find the fine brushwork and richness of texture. Its expression of texture is achieved through the daubing and smearing, the buildup of multiple layers, and scraping techniques of the artist as he creates colour blocks of varying sizes. Brushstrokes from the left and right of the canvas gravitate toward the middle, as if inviting viewers into the depths of the ocean, while gazing upwards; they glimpse hints of sunlight through rippling waves of water. Pleasing rhythms emerge from the interlacing of broad strokes with more finely detailed areas, like Kandinsky's appropriation of musicality and rhythm in his post-war abstract expressionist work.
A SYMPHONY OF COLOUR
Within a few years Kinashi began adding further colour elements to his work. While adhering to the blocked-out spaces and abstract compositions of his earlier monochromatic series, new colours heightened even further their sense of rhythm, and we feel even more strongly the artist's attempts to explore the musical world through his work (Fig. 3).
Kinashi's 1966 Untitled (Lot 92) strongly projects its freedom and melody through its brushwork and colour, even as his careful adjustments of intensity (or chroma) in the work produces an overall atmosphere of calmness. The separate, contrasting blocks of colour tend toward rather soft, neutral tones, contrasting with each other but also providing mutual support and balance. Broad strokes set forth flowing outlines that move through the center of the canvas in silver-blue, while the abrupt interruption of inky black, set off against the other colours, enhances spatial depth and adds weight and thickness. Organic forms and colours produce visually juxtaposed, interlocking, and complementary impressions that echo pleasingly throughout the canvas.
LYRICAL, FREEHAND EASTERN ABSTRACTION
This artist tended towards using soft and subdued colours, evoking a uniquely traditional, Japanese kind of grace and charm that has been difficult for Western artists to capture and express. Kinashi's subtly textured layers of colour, however, shine like crystal faces in reflected light when viewed at close range, evoking connections with the mineral colour pigments the Japanese strove to develop (Fig. 4). These pigments, refined from ores with inherent natural colour, contain particles that enhance texture, and Japanese artists working in this medium have also frequently added large areas of gold and silver leaf chips. Despite working in oils, Kinashi still achieves a pearly, reflective effect, accomplishing a modern transformation of traditional Eastern art while also producing an incomparable individual style of his own.