NAOTO NAKAGAWA

 
Sono mama, means in Japanese
"as it is", "things as they are", and
describes Naoto Nakagawa's work
precisely. He is a realist of special
accomplishment, a realist different
from any of his contemporaries. At the
heart of his difference is his
Japaneseness.
We are familiar with the realist tra-
dition in the West, with the works of
Harnet and Peto and, lately, of Close,
Estes, Thibaud and Bravo. What is
unfamiliar to us is the depth and
breadth of the realist tradition in
Japan, Nakagawa's source and in-
spiration.
Nakagawa's grandfather is Kagaku
Murakami, a recognized master of the
Nihonga. Japanese-style, realist
painting in ink or colors on silk or
paper. The realist movement in Japan
is old, it began in an era when Japan
was sealed off from the West. The
closing of Japan in the 17th century
forced her painters to turn inward and
it was this turning that established in
realist painting a unique style. And it
has given a particular character to
Nakagawa's painting.
When Nakagawa came here some
years ago he was not familiar with
Western realist tradition, but he was
intimately familiar with Japan's. His
work here~and all of his important
painting has been done here~ reflects
his heritage. In fact, it is perhaps not
too much to say that he is the strongest
and most obviously Japanese painter
at work today.
He is not a photo realist nor is he a
super-realist. He has never used
photographs for his work. He renders
the Japanese tradition. His move
several years ago to the slopes of
Vermont reinforced his naturalness
and, for the first time, landscape
became an important element in his
pictures. This move, reminiscent of his
paintings gives to his work a splendid
stillness, and it is altogether satisfac-
tory. The brilliance now of roses and
blue manifests the risks he is willing to
take. He is at that point when things will

no longer hold still.
Even in what might be considered a
relatively undramatic realm of subject
matter, the still life, the impact of one of
Nakagawa's paintings makes itself
immediately felt. It is not merely the
choice of subject that is contem-
porary~lawnmower, ice skates and
television sets, but the choice of the
vantage point in Nakagawa's careful
but random arrangements of the
contents of an attic or garage.
Nakagawa zooms in for a close-up
of the american culture and selects
restructured fragments of this already
circumscribed reality until, at the
ultimate limit of reductive intimacy, the
focus is on such insignificant objects
as a television set or Iawnmower,
forcing us to come to terms with
previously ignored or unnoticed
aspects of the most ordinary experi-
ence of our daily life. Nakagawa with
an elegant flair for display, makes even
a food blender appear to be a rather
significant and intriguing object. This
slip of recognition of an object as it falls
into the realm of pure visual sub-
jectivity. is perhaps the more meta-
physical side of the realist movement.
And an artist of Nakagawa's sensitivity
and selectivity creatively shifts us into
the here and now.
Nakagawa places his still life on a
white cloth mysteriously draped over
an unidentified table or altar of con-
sumer sacrifice and idol worship. The
paintings are perfectly balanced by
use of the old masters triangle or
pyramid composition, where the eye of
the viewer is neatly led throughout the
picture plane. Nakagawa has taken
traditional methods of concept, tech-
nique and composition and applied it
to a current of modern thought and
reality.
This painter, the grandson of Mura-
kami, this descendant of 18th century
Eastern realists, is following the dic-
tales of the poet Basho, who said:
Do not seek to emulate the old mas
faithful to the master, and he is equal
to the task.

ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS:
1968 Judson Gallery, New York,
N.Y
1971 Obelisk Gallery. Boston, Mass
1972 O.K. Harris Gallery, New York,
N.Y
1974 O.K. Harris Gallery. New York,
N.Y
1976 O.K. Harris Gallery, New York,
N.Y
1978 O.K. Harris Gallery, New York.
N.Y.

1979 Minami Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1979 The National Museum of
Modern Art. Kyoto, Japan
O.K. Harris works of Art, New
York, N.Y
Brattleboro Museum,
Brattleboro. Vermont
1980 Minami Gallery Tokyo, Japan


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
1979 The Dragon and the chrysan-
themum, Summit Art center,
Summit, New Jersey
1968 Beyond Literalism, Moore
College of Art, Philadelphia
1969 Young Artists from Around the
world (representing Japan)
union Carbide Building.
New York
1970 Towards A New Metaphysic.
Frumkim Gallery. New York
N.Y
1973 Japanese Artists in the
Americas, Museum of
Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
1974 Japanese Artists in the
Americas, Museum of
Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
1975 Syracuse university, Syracuse.
New York
1976 The Presence and the Absence
in Realism, Brainerd Hall Art
Gallery, State university
College. Potsdam. N.Y
wichita State University
wichita. Kansas
Midyear Show, Butler Institute
of American Art, Youngstown,
Ohio
State University of New York,
Potsdam, New York
1977 The Chosen Obtect'
European and American
Still-Life, Joslyn Art
Museum, Omaha. Nebraska


COLLECTIONS:
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
New York
Worcester Museum, Worcester,
Massachusetts
National Museum of Modern Art,
Kyoto, Japan
Bell Telephone Company Chicago,
Illinois
Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Baltimore Museum of Art,