Nakanishi Natsuyuki (1935–2016) was one of Japan’s preeminent contemporary painters. This exhibition marks the first retrospective of the artist’s work since his death ten years ago.
While tracing the trajectory of Nakanishi’s career back to the late 1950s, the exhibition primarily sets out to shed light on his unique view of painting. Nakanishi’s works are not necessarily depictions of a given subject, making it impossible to classify them as either figurative or abstract. To what extent does a picture inhabit the canvas? Or more to the point, where does it actually exist?
Nakanishi’s practice, in which he constantly returned to the basics, promises to provide us with useful insights as we reconsider the production of painting in Japan at this point in time.