Paint is a wondrous thing. Despite being sticky and gooey, it changes into different colors and shapes, and can be used to create human forms and landscapes on canvas. When the sticky quality of the paint catches our eye, the design of the work recedes from our mind. Conversely, when the design stands out, the stickiness of the paint fades away. We tend to think of a painting as something with a smooth surface and no noticeable stickiness. But what would happen if you intentionally tried to accentuate this aspect?

Regardless of culture or era, people basically enjoy mixing up sticky things. What kind of possibilities arise when this pleasure is addressed in the context of “painting,” a medium that generally requires that we suppress our sense of touch and concentrate on seeing? In this small exhibit, we present approximately 30 works from the MOMAT Collection, including Kishida Ryusei’s Road Cut through a Hill (1915), designated as an Important Cultural Property.

*image (left)
Kishida Ryusei
The Earth, 1915
courtesy of MOMAT