To read his powerful essay on how he and
other artists in his TriBeCa neighborhood responded to the 9/11
tragedy, "Fallen Towers and the Art of Tea," from issue #32, click here.
Makoto Fujimura's Current Projects
Splendor. Refractions, mineral pigments on Kumohada paper. 78 x 54 inches.
I've recently finished a series of new paintings, Splendor, done in 2003 and 2004 as an intuitive visual response to T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets.
I wanted to focus on a specific area of the medium of Nihonga, using
minerals on Kumohada (heavy Japanese rag) paper. When the grainy
pigments are layered on a surface, the medium (hide glue) binds the
pigments to refract color. I wanted to develop a series of paintings
that transcend color categorization, highlighting attributes of each
grain of pigment. The Splendor series remains semi-abstract,
but evokes a greater presence of the medium and the “inner scape” I
have been developing in my works.
In a world increasingly dominated by facile imagery, I aim to create
images that harken back to the original meaning of the word "medium," a
word that used to connote the presence of the Spirit. To me, the Holy
Ghost is the true medium for any human expression. Our lives are the
artworks of the Spirit, and our art can flow directly out of this
relationship. Making the Splendor paintings
involved acceptance of the slow evolution of imagery made possible
through the technique of Nihonga, which has developed in Japan since
medieval times.
Still shots from Nagasaki Koi video, 2004.
The paintings will be on display at the Kristen Frederickson
Contemporary Art in New York this fall along with an installation
called Nagasaki Koi. Koi uses video from a pond in Nagasaki, not far from where the second
atomic explosion took place. In the video, I was taken with the
enormity of such beautiful shapes, their seductive and erotic forms.
They seem dragon-like, even mutated, their forms evoking the horror and
power that forever etch the Ground Zeros of the world. I slowed the
video down considerably, and reversed it. Out of these images came
many sketches done in watercolor, the Splendor paintings,
and video pieces. At the current exhibit, boat-like containers will
house the small monitors, hidden behind thin sheets of mulberry paper,
creating a meditative “catacomb of hope” in the basement Project Room
of the gallery.
A full-color catalogue is available at www.makotofujimura.com
Visit the exhibit: The Splendor of the Medium and Nagasaki Koi
October 10– November 20, 2004
Kristen Frederickson Contemporary Art, 149 Reade Street, New York, NY 10013
Phone: 212-566-7787
Biography
Makoto
Fujimura was born in 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts. Educated
bi-culturally between the U.S. and Japan, Fujimura graduated from
Bucknell University in 1983, and received an M.F.A. from Tokyo National
University of Fine Arts and Music with a Japanese Governmental
Scholarship in 1989. His thesis painting was purchased by the
university and he was invited to study in the Japanese painting
doctorate program, a first for an outsider to this prestigious
traditional program.
Golden Pine. 198 x 270 inches. Gold, silver and mineral pigments on paper.
It was during the six and a half years of studying in Japan that Fujimura began to assimilate the combinations of abstract expressionism explored in the US with the traditional Japanese art of Nihonga. Upon his return to the U.S., he began to exhibit his paintings in New York City, while continuing to show in Tokyo, and was honored in 1992 as the youngest artist ever to have had a piece acquired by Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.
After twenty years as a successful artist in Japan and the U.S., Fujimura has become a voice of bi-cultural authority on the nature and cultural assessment of beauty, by both creating it and exploring its forms. His paintings address the creative process and explore what it means to see. The work moves the observer from cognitive categorization to visceral experience.
In 1990, Fujimura founded The International Arts Movement. With Image, IAM co-hosted a major conference in New York City on "The Return of Beauty" in November of 2002.
Eirenepoios (Precious Nard), 2003. Kristen Frederickson Contemporary.
As an artist working from his studio near Ground Zero until the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Fujimura was deeply affected by the tragic events of that day. But his art continues to speak of hope even in darkness, and the deeper reconsideration of life's meaning. As an artist who travels widely, Fujimura recognizes the momentous changes the world is experiencing since those events, and the role of art in enabling people to reflect deeply, explore their feelings and become more profoundly aware. Some have experienced change for the better due to this awareness. In this regard he notes, "my work constitutes one of many voices calling for change, and I am increasingly hopeful as I observe evidence that we are all in a larger process of re-examining ourselves."
Most recently, Fujimura's work, Gravity and Grace, a collection of paintings formed of carefully stone-ground minerals including azurite, malachite and cinnabar, has been showcased at the Bellas Artes Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. His works can also be seen at Dillon Gallery in Oyster Bay, NY as well as Kristen Frederickson Contemporary Art in New York City. Public collections include The Saint Louis Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and the Time Warner/ AOL/ CNN building in Hong Kong. He was appointed to the National Council on the Arts in 2003.
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