Not many people know that Taro Okamoto produced such lifelike work. During the fierce battle to survive as avant-garde artist during the postwar years, he did not have the chance to display this side of his character, and he does not appear to have felt any nostalgia for it. However, when he was drinking, he would often draw people’s faces for fun, and the skill he displayed with his pen strokes is astounding. With sharp, delicate lines, he grasped the essence of his subject in an instant, sometimes producing a picture that was more typical of the subject than the actual person; he had an amazingly sharp eye.
A lot of the drawings exhibited here belong to that category. They were not produced for exhibition or to be shown to people. However, he does not skimp at all. Taro Okamoto’s work was basically refined elegant. The gentleness in his gaze as he looked at the sleeping soldier, the feeling of transparency. His intense abstract works are incredible, but I cannot help but wish he had shown us more of this kind of work.