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The Passage
by A Gallery
Location: A Gallery
Artist(s): Mitsuru WATANABE
Date: 24 Jan - 21 Feb 2013

a Gallery is proud to present a series of art works by Mitsuru Watanabe, an established Japanese artist. Inspired by Western artists like Rousseau’s and Bosch’s iconic paintings, Watanabe transfuses the classic backgrounds with his forever subject matters, his two daughters. Portrayed in school uniform, the little girls appear to be traveling and exploring the different realm of reality and fantasy in the mysterious dimension. The “In Rousseau Forest / Singing Yukiko” demonstrates Watanabe’s masterful appropriation of Rousseau’s “The Dream”, with his daughter Yukiko in the center stage carrying a doll-like version of Rousseau, as if she is performing on stage within the vast jungle. The vivid contrast of colours and light in this painting exhibit his sensibility in handling the different shades of light.

In “Walking in Bosch’s Last Judgment”, the demonic creatures and its theme recalls Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, the little girl Naoko dominates the center of the canvas as if she is the Queen and protector of this mythical world. These whimsical paintings are a documentation of the adventure that the little girl venture through; a juxtaposition of the innocence of a girl with the historical imagery as the backdrop, Watanabe created this imaginary field trip for his daughters, but in essence also trespassing the social cultural history between the east and west, classical and modern.

Watanabe’s excellent painterly technique and unique vision in his subject matter has expanded the horizon of contemporary Japanese art, where the possibility of the old and the new, the Oriental and the Western, the reality and fantasy can co-exist to create something completely unique yet familiar.

Image: © Mitsuru Watanabe, a Gallery

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