Upcomming / Current Exhibition
Upcomming / Current Exhibition
The Scars of Inspiration
‘When he decides he wants to paint, the picture is as good as finished.’ So said Toshiko Okamoto.
The usual process artists employ when creating a picture is to draw numerous esquisses as they gradually develop their concept,
tarobut Taro took the opposite approach. Once he felt the urge to paint,
an image of the finished work already existed in his head.
Past Exhibition
‘Characters at Play’
There is an art book entitled ‘Asobu Ji (Characters at Play). The contents consist entirely of pictographs that resemble paintings. The character for ‘raku’, meaning ‘happy’, seems to smile and really does look merry while the character for ‘e’ (painting) resembles a person holding a brush and painting a picture.
explore‘Original Painting for the Mural’
There are innumerable examples murals, monuments and public art that Taro Okamoto created to be displayed in public spaces. As he said, ‘Everybody should be free to praise or criticize them without paying a penny, as if they belonged to them.
explore‘Taro’s Pieta’
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.
explore‘Taro and Living Creatures’
‘I was born Tokyo’s Aoyama 6 Chome and lived there during my childhood. In those days there were no surfaced roads in Japan and the air was always filled with the smell of earth and numerous insects flew in front of my eyes.
explore‘Taro’s Eroticism’
Taro’s eroticism is not a form of sweet, moody love. A woman bending backwards, a man approaching without restraint. The man himself is being ripped apart. There can be no joy without tension and pain. That is what it seems to say.
explore‘TARO’s Mother and Child’
Taro Okamoto―Mother, people immediately think of Kanoko Okamoto and it is a fact that his mother, Kanoko, was a big influence in the making of Taro Okamoto, the artist. Intense, pure, devoted. Mother and child resembled each other closely.
explore‘TARO’s Festival’
The original paintings of playing cards shown in this exhibition will probably come as a surprise to those of you for whom the name Taro Okamoto conjures up an image of large-scale, intense, dynamic works. In 1977 a specialist Belgian playing card company wanted to produce some original, artistic cards and Taro was commissioned to create hand-drawn designs for the kings, queens, jacks and aces for the four suites as well as two jokers, a total of eighteen cards in all.
explore‘Taro’s Sun 2’
The eleven ceramic wall designs that were produced to decorate the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in 1956 disappeared when the building was demolished.
In this exhibition we will present the original large-scale sketches for this work as well as the actual-size plaster molds.
‘Taro’s Sun’
The studio, guest room and garden all remain exactly as they were in Taro’s day, retaining so much of Taro Okamoto’s power that you almost expect him to appear at any moment.
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