‘Taro’s Pieta’

October 6, 1999 - December 27, 1999

You may think it strange that Taro Okamoto would produce a Pieta, a picture of the body of Christ being held by his grieving mother after having been taken down from the cross. It is a common theme in European art, but I do not think I have seen many examples of one by a Japanese artist. Taro Okamoto spent his entire life facing new challenges. He realized that one day he too would reach the end of his strength and die and these pictures are an intimation of that time. Although none were ever finished, he produced numerous Pietas. Exhausted, the fight finished, the naked body, covered with wounds, was taken down by the arms and laid on the woman’s lap. This truly is an image of Taro Okamoto himself. He is dead, but he has not finished appealing his existence. The heartrending cry upon which he gambled his life, reverberates deeply and quietly in the heart of the woman he loved, oscillating through the world and the universe. It is as if he is saying ‘Who was this person? What was his fate? Look at him!’ Why did Taro draw so many Pietas? Although he drew lots, he never finished one of them. Maybe he thought he would do it sometime in the future.