Before the Second World War, Iwahashi Eien established the Rekitei Bijutsu Kyokai (Rekitei Art Association) and set about creating a new kind of Nihonga (modern Japanese-style painting) focused on abstract and surrealist painting. And yet, after the war, when he was formally introduced to Yasuda Yukihiko, he turned his attention to the classics of traditional Japanese painting and changed his style again. Through that research, and based on in-depth observations of natural objects and landscapes across various weather conditions and seasons, he arrived at a majestic and mysterious style of painting that expressed even the flow of time behind the subject. This piece was one of the works included in his 1988 solo exhibition “Fuji wo meguru—yama to kumonado” (Touring Fuji: Mountains and Clouds). The title of this work, pronounced “yo,” means radiance. It depicts the fleeting glimmer of clouds reflecting the sun in a broad sky above a low horizon. (KASHIWAGI Tomoh)
Before the Second World War, Iwahashi Eien established the Rekitei Bijutsu Kyokai (Rekitei Art Association) and set about creating a new kind of Nihonga (modern Japanese-style painting) focused on abstract and surrealist painting. And yet, after the war, when he was formally introduced to Yasuda Yukihiko, he turned his attention to the classics of traditional Japanese painting and changed his style again. Through that research, and based on in-depth observations of natural objects and landscapes across various weather conditions and seasons, he arrived at a majestic and mysterious style of painting that expressed even the flow of time behind the subject.
This piece was one of the works included in his 1988 solo exhibition “Fuji wo meguru—yama to kumonado” (Touring Fuji: Mountains and Clouds). The title of this work, pronounced “yo,” means radiance. It depicts the fleeting glimmer of clouds reflecting the sun in a broad sky above a low horizon.
(KASHIWAGI Tomoh)