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Lot Essay
“I am never tired of looking at a stone or a scrap of paper” – Kumagai Morikazu
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.” – William Blake
Kumagai Morikazu, known as the “Hermit Painter”, was as legendary as he was mysterious in the history of Japanese modern art. He lived an uneventful life, and from the 1950s until his death at the age of 97 he spent three decades at home, quietly contemplating in his private garden. In 1967, Japan awarded him the Order of Culture, the highest honour in the world of Japanese art, only to have him turn down the award. He only painted at night, and spent the days in his garden observing nature’s creations.
Morikazu’s creative career spanning seven decades was filled with hardships and setbacks, and his iconic zen style was not formed until after his 70s as marked by Camellia . In 1880, he was born of a wealthy family in Gifu province, and because of his love of nature and disinterest in business he studied Western painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, affording him masterful control over light and realism. Upon his father’s unexpected death after graduation, however, Morikazu was forced to work multiple jobs to support his family. In the 1920s, his style gradually turned from precise realism to wild and passionate Fauvism. He lost three children in the wars, and the experience of death and valediction pushed Morikazu’s paintings towards plainness and simplicity, and his style also became increasingly effortless and returned to the fundamentals.
In the 1950s, Morikazu’s health suffered after a stroke, and from his 70s onwards he became unable to travel to mountains and seas like before. As a result, he made it a daily routine to stay in different corners of his garden, following the trails of ants, studying the growth and withering of plants, and listening to birdsong and insects; he would only paint in his studio in the small and quiet hours of the night. This pure and uncomplicated lifestyle was reflected in his paintings: Camellia vividly describes the plumpness and fulsomeness of the flower in bloom with exceedingly simple lines and straightforward colours, reminding one of the ornithological and floral works of Bada Shanren, overflowing with the sense of returning to basics and an embrace of nature.
Morikazu’s work may seem simple, flat, and effortless, but each stroke was in fact the result of meticulous planning. He was fastidious about calculating sound frequencies and light spectrums, and one learns from his diaries that Morikazu studied German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz’s research in sensory physiology at length, and that he was deeply curious about the use of complementary frequencies of sound and colours to achieve harmony. Morikazu wrote numerous times that “after looking at the morning sun, traces of purple and yellow appear in front of my eyes”, or that “when you look at one colour and switch your gaze to another, the colour changes”. In Camellia , he substituted light and shadows with light and dark colours, starting from the bright stamen at the centre and expanding outwards and turning dark green, rose red, and apricot yellow with delightful rhythm; combined with undulating brushstrokes which remind one of the ripples on a pond, one sees clearly the artist’s unique grasp of the theory between colours and rhythms.
Despite a monastic life of zen and solitude, Morikazu’s paintings exhibits an extraordinarily avant-garde style. The clearly delineated lines and handful of straightforward monochromatic surfaces are enough to make the subject leap off the panel in exceptional clarity like the works by British Pop artist Patrick Caulfield. However, while Pop artists make simple use of commercial colour schemes to achieve a popularised aesthetic, in Morikazu’s painting the flower face demurely down, harmonising with the elegant wood-tone background to preserve the subtle and natural aesthetic of Eastern art.
Morikazu’s backyard was merely several dozen square meters in size, but in this microcosm he still managed to apprehend the grand beauty of nature. His paintings are usually just the size of notebook pages, but they are still filled with his detailed observations of nature and his sincere love for it. He said that “I want to live as long as I possibly can. You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m far from ready to bid everyone farewell.” Today, his residence has been converted into the Kumagai Morikazu Art Museum in Tokyo. As the world marked four decades since his passing last year, The Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art hosted a retrospective in his honour titled “Kumagai Morikazu: The Joy of Life”. 2018 also saw his story turned into film in "Mori, The Artist’s Habitat”. Christie’s is proud to present a definitive example of the artist’s work for the first time, to share with the world’s collectors the “Hermit Painter’s” way of nature.
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.” – William Blake
Kumagai Morikazu, known as the “Hermit Painter”, was as legendary as he was mysterious in the history of Japanese modern art. He lived an uneventful life, and from the 1950s until his death at the age of 97 he spent three decades at home, quietly contemplating in his private garden. In 1967, Japan awarded him the Order of Culture, the highest honour in the world of Japanese art, only to have him turn down the award. He only painted at night, and spent the days in his garden observing nature’s creations.
Morikazu’s creative career spanning seven decades was filled with hardships and setbacks, and his iconic zen style was not formed until after his 70s as marked by Camellia . In 1880, he was born of a wealthy family in Gifu province, and because of his love of nature and disinterest in business he studied Western painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, affording him masterful control over light and realism. Upon his father’s unexpected death after graduation, however, Morikazu was forced to work multiple jobs to support his family. In the 1920s, his style gradually turned from precise realism to wild and passionate Fauvism. He lost three children in the wars, and the experience of death and valediction pushed Morikazu’s paintings towards plainness and simplicity, and his style also became increasingly effortless and returned to the fundamentals.
In the 1950s, Morikazu’s health suffered after a stroke, and from his 70s onwards he became unable to travel to mountains and seas like before. As a result, he made it a daily routine to stay in different corners of his garden, following the trails of ants, studying the growth and withering of plants, and listening to birdsong and insects; he would only paint in his studio in the small and quiet hours of the night. This pure and uncomplicated lifestyle was reflected in his paintings: Camellia vividly describes the plumpness and fulsomeness of the flower in bloom with exceedingly simple lines and straightforward colours, reminding one of the ornithological and floral works of Bada Shanren, overflowing with the sense of returning to basics and an embrace of nature.
Morikazu’s work may seem simple, flat, and effortless, but each stroke was in fact the result of meticulous planning. He was fastidious about calculating sound frequencies and light spectrums, and one learns from his diaries that Morikazu studied German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz’s research in sensory physiology at length, and that he was deeply curious about the use of complementary frequencies of sound and colours to achieve harmony. Morikazu wrote numerous times that “after looking at the morning sun, traces of purple and yellow appear in front of my eyes”, or that “when you look at one colour and switch your gaze to another, the colour changes”. In Camellia , he substituted light and shadows with light and dark colours, starting from the bright stamen at the centre and expanding outwards and turning dark green, rose red, and apricot yellow with delightful rhythm; combined with undulating brushstrokes which remind one of the ripples on a pond, one sees clearly the artist’s unique grasp of the theory between colours and rhythms.
Despite a monastic life of zen and solitude, Morikazu’s paintings exhibits an extraordinarily avant-garde style. The clearly delineated lines and handful of straightforward monochromatic surfaces are enough to make the subject leap off the panel in exceptional clarity like the works by British Pop artist Patrick Caulfield. However, while Pop artists make simple use of commercial colour schemes to achieve a popularised aesthetic, in Morikazu’s painting the flower face demurely down, harmonising with the elegant wood-tone background to preserve the subtle and natural aesthetic of Eastern art.
Morikazu’s backyard was merely several dozen square meters in size, but in this microcosm he still managed to apprehend the grand beauty of nature. His paintings are usually just the size of notebook pages, but they are still filled with his detailed observations of nature and his sincere love for it. He said that “I want to live as long as I possibly can. You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m far from ready to bid everyone farewell.” Today, his residence has been converted into the Kumagai Morikazu Art Museum in Tokyo. As the world marked four decades since his passing last year, The Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art hosted a retrospective in his honour titled “Kumagai Morikazu: The Joy of Life”. 2018 also saw his story turned into film in "Mori, The Artist’s Habitat”. Christie’s is proud to present a definitive example of the artist’s work for the first time, to share with the world’s collectors the “Hermit Painter’s” way of nature.