discover!

"Taro Okamoto's phantom work" or "Explosion!" After suffering, July 7, 12:41

"Art is an explosion!"

Taro Okamoto, an artist who continues to influence many people with his powerful words and works that embody them.

"Is there a phantom painting that Taro Okamoto drew when he was in his early twenties?" When

I heard such information, I proceeded with the interview thinking "No way."

In the process, what emerged was the worries and suffering of the young Taro, and the sincere appearance of facing and fighting "self" head-on.

(Soutaro Iwata, Reporter, Faculty of Science and Culture)

Three paintings brought in

This February, three oil paintings that had been stored in Paris were brought into a warehouse in Tokyo.

Five experts were waiting for the arrival.

The painting depicts something like a fluttering cloth and a mysterious motif that looks somewhat like smoke.

"This is strange, isn't it?"

"It looks like Taro, but ..."

One of the three points has a blurry Chinese character signature that can be read as "Taro Okamoto".

I felt confused by the experts who looked into it.

This is because it was common sense in the art world that "Taro's work from the Paris era cannot be left behind."

Taro Okamoto Memorial Hall Director Akiomi Hirano

"I was surprised. All the works and materials I brought back from Paris were burned by air raids. Is an established theory, and I believed so.

If these three points were Taro's works, it would be a great discovery to rewrite the history of Taro Okamoto. Moreover, there are no photographs or records, and the existence itself is known. Wasn't done "

Home is hit by air raids, works and materials burn

Taro Okamoto was born in 1911 as the eldest son of Ippei Okamoto, a well-known manga artist, and Kanoko Okamoto, a singer and novelist.

He traveled to Paris with his parents at the age of 18, and he continued his painting and creative activities after the two returned to Japan.

At the age of 29, it is said that he returned to Japan with the paintings and materials he had drawn so far when the German army invaded France.

However, while he was on the road to China, his home was burned by an air raid ...

Things move with contact from Paris

It was February this year that the gears that had stopped started to move.

A French man living in Paris provided information that "the work he owns has the signature of" Taro Okamoto "", and the "Taro Okamoto Memorial Foundation for the Promotion of Contemporary Art", which collects and researches materials related to Taro, etc. It was decided to conduct a detailed investigation.

The investigation was to proceed as follows.

▽ A component analysis of paint is performed to confirm whether all three points owned by a French man were drawn by the same person.

▽ Conducted a handwriting examination of the signature that can be read as "Taro Okamoto" written in one of the three works.

▽ Based on these, experts who are familiar with Taro's work will discuss and summarize their views.

Component analysis of paints

The first is the analysis of the components of the three paintings and the paints used in each.

Assistant Professor Yoshiya Abe of Tokyo Denki University conducted a survey using a technique called fluorescent X-ray analysis.

As a result, it was found that the components of "blue", "black", and "cream" used in the three works are almost the same.

It turns out that all three may have been painted by the same author using similar paints.

Irony document examination

Next is the handwriting examination.

During the war, his home was burned down, so there are few characters of Taro when he was young.

A private specialized institution will analyze the characters written by Taro when he was a teenager before the Paris era, and the characters he wrote when he was in his 60s after Paris.

The result of importing characters into a personal computer and analyzing them is ...

It was presumed that it was probably written by the same author, Taro Okamoto.

Leaders of research gather

Based on these results, the five experts have come together again.

The following people gathered at the Taro Okamoto Memorial Hall in Minami Aoyama, Tokyo.

▽ Akiomi Hirano, director of the memorial hall.

▽ Taro's masterpiece = Emile Yoshimura, a painting restoration artist who was also in charge of restoration of "Myth of Tomorrow".

▽ Koichi Watari, CEO of Watarium Art Museum, a leader in contemporary art.

▽ Art critic and Professor Noi Sawaragi of Tama Art University.

▽ Professor Yuji Yamashita of Meiji Gakuin University who is familiar with art history.

Both are leading researchers in Taro research.

The five of them proceeded with the examination based on the comparison with Taro's art book published in the Paris era and the work published in "OKAMOTO".

Mr. Yoshimura pointed out as follows from the results of component analysis of paints.

Mr. Yoshimura

"If you magnify with a digital microscope, you can see that these three points are drawn using similar canvases. Furthermore, the paints of the three works have something in common, and it is possible that they were drawn by the same author. High. One of them has the signature of "Taro Okamoto". "

Mr. Watari is even more aggressive.

Mr. Watari

"When you look at a picture, the moment of the first encounter is important. I intuitively thought that the way of confronting the work was Mr. Taro's. However, the point is the theme and method that is drawn. I felt that Taro Okamoto's work was about drawing fluttering things and dividing the space into two. "

Mr. Sasaki stepped into Taro's feelings during the Paris era.

Mr. Sasaki

"I think that Taro at that time had" strong pressure "and" worries "that he had to leave Japan and create original works among painters who gathered from all over the world and competed for their skills. It can be said that such an element appears in the three points. "

Mr. Yamashita agrees.

Mr. Yamashita

"I can see the troubled young Taro Okamoto. I think it's an important discovery in that sense. It's already 100% for me." Gesture "when drawing in Taro's picture. There is a unique curve that makes you see

The conclusion of the five people is that "it is highly possible that Taro himself drew it."

It was the moment when three works, whose existence was not even known until now, were "discovered" again.

Why were the three "Taro works" left behind?

Three paintings that Taro himself drew with increased possibility.

But why was it left in Paris?

The investigation was carried out in parallel, and the following circumstances emerged.

In the city of Paris, there is a section that has been used since the end of the 19th century and can be called the "atelier village" that still remains.

It is the place where painters such as Miro and Ernst, who worked hard with Taro, spent time.

In 1993, a painter who lived here dumped the remaining "paintings" in the atelier in a garbage dump.

At this time, a French man living in the same "atelier village" became interested in the "painting".

He decided to take the "picture" home and store it.

The following year, the painter died, and the other two items left in the atelier were also auctioned.

The French man also won the bid for two of them, and got a total of three works.

That is how the three points were left.

One of these, once abandoned, was passed on to the present after a strange fate.

Isn't it a miracle-like event?

"Slightly low degree of perfection"

On the other hand, when it comes to the performance of the three points, the evaluation of the experts is harsh.

"Compared to the works that will be released later, the degree of perfection is a little low, and it is clearly a little childish. There is not much dynamism and sense of speed that Taro's work has. It feels like that,

but I think it can't be helped. I think I was drawing little by little, while I was at a loss. "

Encounter with abstract painting

Young Taro started painting in Paris.

One day, he encountered the work of Picasso, a painter representing the 20th century, and was shocked to tears.

And he himself aspired to be an abstract expression.

An interview about his feelings at that time is left on NHK.

"I was so excited and tearful. As long as I was impressed, I decided to do a job that would overcome that, be completely different from that, and overcome it. That's why I got into abstraction more and more."

Mr. Hirano and his colleagues think that these three points are probably studies in their early twenties (= works drawn for practice).

It is said that the abstract painting "space" (work at the age of 23) published in the art book "OKAMOTO" may have evolved from such a study.

Taro has worries and suffering

However, around this time, Taro's worries and sufferings are born.

In his book, "Have Poison in Yourself," Taro writes:

"I was wondering. What exactly do I mean, what does it mean to live?" (《Have poison in me》)

Is it okay to continue drawing abstract paintings as it is?

Or should we seek a new path?

Taro continued to struggle in Paris.

He is not a human imitation, he has solidified his determination to create works that only he can draw.

"I swore to myself with the feeling of throwing out life. There is no life other than facing death. Let's cut off the other empty conditions. And explode our destiny." )

"Scratched arm" is a turning point

At the age of 25, Taro created a piece.

"Itamashiki Ude"

In this work, a large red ribbon that seems to be floating is drawn.

At the same time, Taro also drew his arm, which held his fist with great force, on the canvas.

It's a realistic expression, but his arm has a spiral wound that looks like it was cut off by something, which makes the viewer feel pain.

Mr. Hirano of the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum points out that the "wounded arm" incorporates two contradictory expressions, abstract and concrete.

Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum Director Hirano "

Abstract

painting is the idea that the expression is composed only of abstract things, so originally, you should not draw concrete things.

The arm is clearly drawn, and the raw scratches are drawn, which clearly deviates from the abstract expression. When trying to express something like the dynamic feeling of life, only the abstract element is still drawn. I imagine that I thought it wasn't enough.

Taro was struggling to find out how to get his own expression. Overcoming that and grasping his own expression. "

After that, Taro creates works that seem to be a fusion of abstraction and concreteness, and powerful works that use abundant primary colors.

The objects of creation extend not only to paintings, but also to sculptures, objects, and furniture, and there are many cases where Taro's work is on the street corner when he suddenly looks up.

To the Tower of the Sun, tomorrow's myth

Among them, the representative works are "Tower of the Sun", which was produced as a symbol of the 1970 Osaka Expo, and "Myth of Tomorrow," which was produced in Mexico and was drawn in the image of the moment when the atomic bomb exploded.

The Tower of the Sun, which still stands in the Expo '70 Commemorative Park in Suita City, Osaka, is about 70 meters high.

It features three "faces" attached to the center, top, and back of the tower.

Inside, there is a "Tree of Life" that expresses the evolution of living things.

Its majesty seems to blend into the landscape and seems to reject it.

"Myth of Tomorrow," which was produced at about the same time, is a huge mural painting 5.5 meters high and 30 meters wide.

The burning skeleton and Daigo Fukuryu Maru are drawn to express the fear and misery of nuclear weapons, and at the same time, make anyone feel the vitality that cannot be erased.

After the production, the whereabouts were temporarily unknown, but it was found in a warehouse in Mexico City and repaired, and now it is looking down on the passersby in the connecting passage of Shibuya Station in Tokyo.

I felt that these works were created because the young Taro suffered a lot.

"Taro's masterpiece is Taro Okamoto."

With this discovery, I touched on a part of a person named Taro Okamoto.

Mr. Hirano says that there is no time when "Taro Okamoto" is required as much as it is today.

"This work is the starting point and the origin of Taro. It is very important in that sense. Taro is general in everything he created, what he thought, what he actually said and did, and how he interacted with society. The

stage is completely different from that of an artist.

Taro created various things and left behind various things, but when asked what the best masterpiece is, I will answer "Taro Okamoto himself" without hesitation. It's the very existence of Taro Okamoto.

Everything Taro tried to do is related to the fundamental question, "What is human beings and what is art?" In other words, the essence and origin of human beings. I've been trying to get closer to it, creating things to touch it, and talking about various things. I think that Taro Okamoto is necessary because it is a closed era, and there are people who want Taro Okamoto. "

Words left by Taro

Finally, I would like to mention some words left by Taro Okamoto.

What do you feel?

"The joy and sadness of the day we live. Every day is alive with new colors."

"I don't know my limits. No matter how small or immature, I live in the entire universe."

"I think art is life itself. The one who lives the most intensely as a human being. I want to emphasize that the way of life that unconditionally gives life and explodes is art." Art is an explosion. " "

(About these 3 works) The 3 works

confirmed this time will be open to the public for the first time at the "Exhibition" Taro Okamoto "" to be held from July 23rd.

Sotaro Iwata ,

Reporter, Faculty of Science and Culture Joined the Department of Science and Culture

in 2011

After working at the Utsunomiya Broadcasting Station, from 2016