Hide Kawabata

Hide Kawabata				Main Gallery, Small Works Gallery			Sep 1 - Oct 3, 2007

Images	I	Statement	I	Catalogue Essay	I	Purchase Painting or Catalogue
	Hide Kawabata: Spiritual Iconographies The Japanese artist Hide Kawabata creates dense tangles of images, a number of which reference Japanese religious and cultural transitions—he has paintings devoted to the Buddha and the Kabuki dramas, as well as stylized pictures of roses. Overlapping tendrils of color build up a complex interplay that veers in the direction of abstraction; in a number of works, the imagery seems to explode off the page, so forcefully presented are the elements with which his art is composed. The paintings, however, are not entirely nonobjective; for example in Buddha, the viewer sees, in the center of the composition, a gaunt human torso in yellow, with red horizontal stripes, which is surrounded by accumulations of red curving lines. The lines frame the yellow chest of the Buddha, who lacks limbs or a head. Also, the frame of writhing red lines can easily be seen as an aura, a spiritual nimbus, surrounding the fact of the disconsolate body that lies at the center of the composition. The terms of this dramatic painting and others by Kawabata revel in their complex patterns of form; in the entirely abstract oil work entitled “Death of the Buddha,” it is possible to see a relationship between the tight coils of red paint and fellow Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s infinity net paintings. Here, in Kawabata’s rendition of the Buddha’s passing, we see knotted skeins of red strokes, which suggest a barely controlled chaos and more or less cover the yellow ground. The strong emotions communicated by the paintings devoted to the Buddha are reprised in other works as well. His “Kabuki” series ethereally portrays the actors with swirling white and red ribbons of color and a stylized rendition of the mask they wear. In most of the images, the audience senses a turbulent energy that is barely contained by form. Part of this energy results from the stylistic decisions of Kawabata, and part of it is linked to the subject matter itself. In “Super Kabuki,” the swirling ribbons of paint build up a field of energy related to the movements of the Kabuki actors, and there is a mask in the composition’s upper center, a kind of eye in the midst of a hurricane. Despite the small dimensions of the painting—14 ¼ inches by 10 inches—the overall impact is much more intense than its size would seem. It would appear that Kawabata is as interested in the nonobjective presentation of spiritual energies as he is in portraying the figuratively real. If it is true that energy permeates all levels of form, Kawabata can be regarded as a masterful interpreter of its emanations, in the worlds of religion, theatre and nature. Indeed, natural forms remain central objects of interest for Kawabata, who depicts roses, sunflowers, and the sun in beautifully stylized versions of the real thing. The compositions are small—for example, “Nichirin—The Sun” is only five by seven inches in dimension, yet conveys a sum of forces that belies its small size. “Sun Flower,” at 5¾ inches by 4¼ inches, is also diminutive, but it also conveys a throbbing energy that highlights its chthonic powers. Kawabata’s vortices extend themselves in visions that maintain graphic power despite their limited size; in “Waves and Blue Sun in Mont-St. Michel” and “Mont Saint Michel’s (wave)”, we experience nature as a series of superimposed arabesques, with a blue sun in the former painting. And in three paintings devoted to Spain, its sun, olive fields, and flowers, Kawabata’s audience is met with a field of yellow, over which greens and reds have been painted in order to illuminate the beauty of the landscape. No matter how abstract and stylized Kawabata’s art may be, it remains true that he stays close to nature and its energies, signifying meaning in works that pulse with a drive and consequence both figurative and abstract in nature. His art deserves close observation, which will provide his viewers with the experience of an original language, all Kawabata’s own. Jonathan Goodman Jonathan Goodman is a freelance writer and teacher who specializes in Asian art. He has written on Chinese, Korean, and Japanese subjects for several magazines, including Art in America, ART news, Sculpture, and Art Asia Pacific. Based in New York, he currently teaches at Pratt Institute and the Parsons School of Design.