3 July – 5 September, 2010
Toshio Arimoto (1946-1985), having discerned common features in Western fresco paintings and Japanese Buddhist religious paintings, attempted to express them using the mineral pigments, gold or silver leaf, and other materials characteristic of Nihonga or Japanese-style paintings. Arimoto’s starting point as an artist was Watashi ni totte no Piero Della Francesca (My Piero Della Francesca), his thesis project for graduation from Tokyo University of the Arts, which the university bought in for its collection. (Of the ten works in the series, five are included in this exhibition.) He then won the Yasui Prize, the gateway to success for rising young painters, for his "Shitsunaigaku" (Chamber Music), which, with many of his other masterpieces, is also in the exhibition.
In them, the unique matière of his paintings, their antique, patinated quality, communicates a sense of silence and repose. This exhibition offered a retrospective of Arimoto Toshio’s achievements, a decade of work in painting, prints, sculpture, and other media, work that continues to enthrall us today, a quarter of a century after his death.