HISASHI TENMYOUYA (JAPAN, B. 1966)

RX-78-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version

Details

HISASHI TENMYOUYA (JAPAN, B. 1966)
RX-78-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version
signed ‘Hisashi Tenmyouya' in Japanese (lower left)
one seal of the artist
acrylic and gold leaf on wood, diptych
each: 200 x 100 cm. (78 3/4 x 39 3/8 in.)
overall: 200 x 200 cm. (78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.)
Painted in 2005

Provenance

Anon. Sale, Christie's Hong Kong, 24 May 2008, Lot 177
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Private Collection, Asia

Literature

Art it, Issue 8, Japan, 2005 (illustrated, unpaged).
Suntory Museum, Gundam Generating Futures, Osaka, Japan, 2005 (illustrated, pp. 58-61).
Kawade Shobo Shinsha Publishers, Tenmyouya Hisashi, Tokyo, Japan, 2006 (illustrated, p. 10).
Sapporo Artwork, LURE Vol 18, Sapporo, Japan, 18 July 2006 (illustrated, p. 13).
Chronicle Books LLC., See/Saw : Connections Between Japanese Art Then And Now, San Francisco, USA, 2011 (illustrated, plate no. 42, p. 75).

Exhibited

Osaka, Japan, Suntory Musuem, Gundam - Generating Futures, 15 July - 31 August, 2005.
Tokyo, Japan, The Ueno Royal Museum, Gundam - Generating Futures, 6 November - 25 December, 2005.
Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto International Manga Museum, Gundam - Generating Futures, 10 February - 25 March, 2007.

Brought to you by

Jessica Hsu

jhsu@christies.com +852 2978 6887

Lot Essay

Hisashi Tenmyouya is a self-taught artist, who invented a new genre of 'neo-nihonga.' This movement revives the deflated nostalgia of 'Japan-ness,' which is lost in the global socio-political and economic dynamics of modernity. Consistently rebelling on the politics of modernity that create exigencies for unique individualism, Tenmyouya reinvents Gundam into RX078-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version (Lot 200). Kabuki-mono was known as masterless samurais, notorious for their odd clothing, distinctive hair style and their long swords. They rebelled against local authorities and terrorised their surroundings. The gold leaf as a base backdrop illuminates the honourable and divine existence of RX078-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version with light glistening off the surface in majestic scale, standing as a shrine for glorification and worship. The quiet compelling aura of this painting speaks multivalent volumes of Tenmyouya's societal and political concerns for contemporary Japan.

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