Imura Art Gallery Kyoto presents Takeshi Tanaka's Solo Exhibition, "the Tales of the Night."

Tanaka's work poses a question about the terms "Japanese painting." He often quotes Hishida Shunso's remark,"I believe that the day will come when all the works by Japanese people will be considered as "Japanese paintings" as those created by the Japanese based on japonese ideas" and claims that it is important to "continue to create what the artist strongly believes as being the authentic Japanese painting."

In his representative work series, the "Sixteen Erotic Figures", a woman obsessed by sexual desire shows a symbolic gesture of mudra with her hands while plants and flowers taken from the copies of Kano style paintings are scattered around her. In this manner, Tanaka transforms his paintings to modern pieces, grounded in the Western painting approach, while inheriting the traditional expressions of Japanese paintings.

At this exhibition, Tanaka's works created in the theme of desire of the night as well as some new works including the "Sixteen Erotic Figures" series will be exhibed. In the darkness of the night when one's earthly desires surface, how would a human being face his or her own desires? In a late winter's night, we wish that you could immerse yourself in the world of the night depicted by Tanaka as you listen to your own tales of the night.

*image (left)
© Takeshi Tanaka
courtesy of the artist and Imura Art Gallery