TAB Event - Hiroshi Nakamura "Pictorial Disturbances 1953-2007"

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At Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Media: Painting

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A steam locomotive traveling in mid-air; one-eyed girls in sailor suits; scenery moving past train windows at high speed... The works of Hiroshi Nakamura (born 1932) strike a powerful impression in the viewer. Throughout the decades since the war, Nakamura has not wavered in his commitment to representational art and to the expression of a personal vision.

In the 1950s, his works examining political incidents and social phenomena garnered attention under the name “reportage art.” Ever since, he has produced artworks from a deep sensitivity to the social conditions of the times -- works that have earned him a broad following and acclaim in the annals of post-war Japanese art.

In a comprehensive look at Nakamura’s art, this exhibition presents the full scope of his work through a total 300 pieces, including some 200 book covers, designs, and illustrations in addition to some 100 oil paintings.

Having begun by recording and reporting various social and political incidents, Nakamura still today conceives and creates every work with the actual viewer in mind. In artworks of wide-ranging character, he introduces line-drawn “pictorial” elements that actively promote communication with the viewer—“icons,” “diagrams,” “picture words,” and so on, products of his unique, ongoing exploration into ways of capturing the viewer’s eye and attention. For the art viewer, therefore, an encounter with a work by Hiroshi Nakamura is, above all, like being a witness to an incident or disturbance. We are pleased to introduce the entire scope of this maverick artist’s oeuvre—a chain of “pictorial disturbances” that continually embroil all who see them.

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