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Lot Essay
Hisao Domoto's oeuvre can be characterised in three major periods, "Informal Art" in the 1950s, "solutions of Discontinuity" in the 1960s, "Possibilities of Chain Reactions" from the 1970s onward. Domoto is a major figure of the post-war art scene, and in particular a leading Japanese artist in 1950s Paris.
CHALLENGING BOUNDARIES OF CONVENTIONAL EXPRESSION
After a childhood in Kyoto surrounded in an artistic environment, a higher education in Japanese fine arts, and a trip to Europe with his uncle Insho Domoto, Hisao Domoto moved to the source of artistic creation, Paris, in an effort to further explore artistic expression. When he arrived in Paris in 1955, he was quickly introduced to Michel Tapié, leader of the Art Informel movement, which provided a platform for artistic development outside the boundaries of conventional art. He gained instant recognition for his abstract paintings expressing rapid movement, intense energy and unlimited depth. His painting Untitled (Lot 521) was exhibited at Galerie Stadler in one of the several one-man shows that helped propel his reputation to the international level. Thick impastos and strikes of bright red, yellow, green and blue dynamically spin in and out of a black and white background, giving the viewer a sense of inner reflection.
RETURNING TO EASTERN ROOTS
"Other artists from Art Informel movement were from a different generation, they had a different cultural background. I started wondering if I should rather focus my artistic development as an Eastern artist in search of Eastern symbolism" (Hisao Domoto, in Dialogue with Y. Inui in 1973).
In the 1970s, Domoto operated a return to "Asian" inspired aesthetics, and particularly developed an interest in circles and wave. He identified the power of the circle as a continuous form, which, if large enough, could become an area, and if small enough could become a dot which in turn could constitute a line. Two Chain Reaction (Lot 522, 523) investigate the endless possibilities of dynamism through the most elementary forms of geometry. Painted once the artist had permanently moved back to Japan, they are both in the collection of a patron of the artist who recognised these paintings for their purified composition and surface, allowing Domoto to strip down the act of painting to its meditative form, thus returning to his Japanese heritage.
CHALLENGING BOUNDARIES OF CONVENTIONAL EXPRESSION
After a childhood in Kyoto surrounded in an artistic environment, a higher education in Japanese fine arts, and a trip to Europe with his uncle Insho Domoto, Hisao Domoto moved to the source of artistic creation, Paris, in an effort to further explore artistic expression. When he arrived in Paris in 1955, he was quickly introduced to Michel Tapié, leader of the Art Informel movement, which provided a platform for artistic development outside the boundaries of conventional art. He gained instant recognition for his abstract paintings expressing rapid movement, intense energy and unlimited depth. His painting Untitled (Lot 521) was exhibited at Galerie Stadler in one of the several one-man shows that helped propel his reputation to the international level. Thick impastos and strikes of bright red, yellow, green and blue dynamically spin in and out of a black and white background, giving the viewer a sense of inner reflection.
RETURNING TO EASTERN ROOTS
"Other artists from Art Informel movement were from a different generation, they had a different cultural background. I started wondering if I should rather focus my artistic development as an Eastern artist in search of Eastern symbolism" (Hisao Domoto, in Dialogue with Y. Inui in 1973).
In the 1970s, Domoto operated a return to "Asian" inspired aesthetics, and particularly developed an interest in circles and wave. He identified the power of the circle as a continuous form, which, if large enough, could become an area, and if small enough could become a dot which in turn could constitute a line. Two Chain Reaction (Lot 522, 523) investigate the endless possibilities of dynamism through the most elementary forms of geometry. Painted once the artist had permanently moved back to Japan, they are both in the collection of a patron of the artist who recognised these paintings for their purified composition and surface, allowing Domoto to strip down the act of painting to its meditative form, thus returning to his Japanese heritage.