Touching Stone Gallery 539 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87505 USA
www.touchingstone.com Tel: 505-988-8072 Email: director@touchingstone.com
| Fumiko Kurokawa Moments of Grace June 3 - 29, 2011 |
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| Sumi-e by
Fumiko Kurokawa Sumi-e (literally water-ink painting), a Chinese and Japanese art form, is an extraordinarily expressive medium ideal for capturing subtle moods of quiet subjects. Unlike realistic Western painting which uses light and shadows to create an illusion of perspective, sumi-e emphasizes beauty of forms created by brush movement and ink flow on paper. In this regard, sumi-e and Oriental calligraphy share common aesthetic qualities that have no parallel in Western art. In his classic book Composition, Georgia O’Keeffe’s teacher Arthur Wesley Dow wrote on sumi-e: "The painter ...put upon the paper the fewest possible lines and tones; just enough to cause form, texture and effect to be felt. Every brush-touch must be full-charged with meaning, and useless detail eliminated. Put together all the good points in such a method, and you have the qualities of the highest art".1 This happens to be a fitting description of Fumiko Kurokawa's paintings. Fumiko Kurokawa is an accomplished sumi-e artist who paints with a pure traditional style called mottkotsu ho (without outline). Kurokawa’s brushwork is lively, delicate and graceful like a dance. Her sumi-e captures the quintessential of tranquil country life in rural Japan. Her favorite subjects are simple quiet landscapes and still life, reminders of the innocent beauty in things ordinary. But it's her exquisite composition with impeccable use of negative space that distinguishes her works. Born in the Wakayama Prefecture in Japan, Kurokawa spent her childhood surrounded by mountains and towering Japanese cedars. She had always wanted to be an artist, but raising a family kept her from her dream until she was in her late 30’s. After her youngest son entered school, she began to study sumi-e and watercolor. She was especially inspired by her sumi-e teacher Yasuo Shimizu, and her talent was recognized quickly. Since 1984, Kurokawa has been exhibiting her works in major art shows, including the Japan-France Modern Art Exhibition. Her works have brought her many awards, including Work of Excellence and Best of Show awards in the Toboku group shows in Tokyo. In 1990, Kurokawa and her late husband built a traditional country house in the town of No-se, in the mountains northwest of the City of Osaka. It was there she found the “forgotten Japan” - old houses with straw-thatched roofs, mountains with towering Japanese cedars, plenty of rice fields, and a simple life. Kurokawa flourished as an artist. She would pack her car with painting materials and drove alone to remote villages and countryside to explore and paint. It is a wonderfully nurturing place for an artist. One of her favorite subjects is snow. Sometimes, she would go out in a snowstorm to paint, allowing snowflakes falling on the paper to create dynamic effects characteristic of her winterscapes. Besides creating art, Kurokawa gets satisfaction from teaching. She was appointed by the principal of an elementary school in Osaka to start a new sumi-e class. Her devotion to the community also prompted her to offer classes for mentally and physically handicapped individuals. Her pupils’ works often surprised and inspired her. Kurokawa has been showing in Touching Stone Gallery since 2000. The current exhibition shows off her haiku-like sensibility and delicate brushwork, an exquisite style noted for its purity and grace. 1. Arthur W. Dow. 1913. Composition. The County Life Press. NY. |
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