At Frieze Masters 2023, Shibunkaku will showcase the works of two remarkable painters, Kumagai Morikazu (1880–1977) and Fukuda Heihachirō (1892–1974), exploring the theme: Refinement of Color and Form. These two artists have created significant legacies in the history of Japanese modern art through their exceptional meditations on color and form.
These two artists create worlds of color and form borne through self-reflection, absorption, and distillation of the essence from all things. The spirit of these humble scenes and objects of everyday life transcends the boundaries of representation and abstraction, the realistic and the decorative, blurring the lines between the concept of self and the other, and portray equally the beauty of all things. These works are steeped in Japan’s unique philosophy of subject-object unity amidst the cycles of reincarnation, demonstrating both Fukuda and Kumagai’s artistic foundations.
Moreover, this gaze offers light-hearted suggestions to the distortions and contradictions of the modern era, which have taken differentiation and classification as core identities.
In the United States during the mid-20th century, the abstract art movement known as Color Field began to emerge. Often described as a subset of Abstract Expressionism, Color Field is characterized by unbroken planes of saturated color, with an emphasis on process, form, and color rather than gesture. As early as the 1930s, Japanese artists had also begun to explore the potentiality of color and bold yet classic shapes in a similar fashion to the American Color Field artists.
Alongside Kumagai Morikazu and Fukuda Heihachirō, Shibunkaku will present the works of fellow Japanese painters from the same era, including Yamaguchi Takeo (1902–1983), Okada Kenzō (1902–1982), Ikeda Yōson (1895–1988), Nakamura Masayoshi (1924–1977), as well as the American Color Field artist, Yvonne Thomas (1913–2009) and contemporary ceramicist Ogawa Machiko (b.1946). We are also pleased to include the striking and dynamic fusuma paintings, by Munakata Shikō (1903–1975), one of Japan’s leading print artists highly praised for his unique style and deeply emotive artistic expressions.
We are honored to present this striking curation and welcome you to join us in viewing the works of these modern masters.
Frieze Masters 2023
2023.10.11 – 10.15
The Regent’s Park, London ＜Google Maps＞
Stand A10
