Lot 1711: GO YAYANAGI

GO YAYANAGI
(B. 1933)
Mirror and Nude
signed 'yayanagi' in English; dated '1978' (lower left)
oil and acrylic on canvas
65 x 91 cm. (25 5/8 x 35 7/8 in.)
Painted in 1978

Hokkaido, Japan, Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art, Distant Cosmology- Yayanagi Go, 40 years, 16 May-28 June 1992.

Enamored with safari animals, the hot sun and vibrant cultures unknown in his birthplace in Hokkaido, Japan, Go Yayanagi's oeuvre vividly depicts the contagious warmth and glee of the Southern hemisphere. Yayanagi's effervescent spirit, his voyages and Japanese heritage are combined onto one largely, amusing canvas.

Though overwhelming with lines and electric colours, the composition and motifs Yayanagi maintains thin definite black lines throughout Mirror and Nude(Lot 1711) and Construction of Civilization (Lot 1713), paying homage to Asian aesthetics of calligraphy and Yayanagi's practice of lithography in the 1960s. Using large abstract shapes of distinctive colour is symbolic of the ever important yen in Japan and further becomes an emblem for his worldwide travel and his great appreciation for natural life. Interconnecting this with the exotic birds, fishes, waterfalls, fiercely patterned fabric and bodies highlights Yayanagi's adventurous spirit pervades the canvas with emblems of exploration and exoticism.

Yayanagi's voracious appetite for discovery and liveliness is further defined in the plethora of intermingled designs, which at close observation is surprisingly organized into playful visual fields. In The SeaKand now [No. 3] (Lot 1712), cascading waterfall over the bed of leaves and roses is actually a window frame with pulled curtains while the overlapping circular shapes in Construction of Civilization fashions an oversized insect in the left and contour the blue disks on the right. As such, Yayanagi's works must be regarded as one composition and when done so reveals a passionate rendition of years of accumulated travel and life knowledge, a story of his artistic practices and desires. Armed with our imagination, we are able to conjure ingenious forms from the liquid colours of Yayanagi's canvas, re-constructing his worldly passions from within a canvas. His ingenious yet autobiographical conceptions are aptly able to reach a universal audience, striking in their astonishing colours that seem to bear a life of their own.