The Unnamed Color

 The Unnamed Color proposes the importance of freeing the objects of our daily perception from preconceived notions and existing classifications, and of facing existence as it truly is. When viewers accept, without judgment, the shimmering colors that fluctuate with light and the hues that exist between colors, they come to recognize that painting is not merely something to be seen, but something to be experienced and perceived through the body.

 

 “To receive the world with one’s own body—to touch the sensation that the soul is here.”

I hope to participate in creating a place where anyone can experience the joy of living through art.

The title The Unnamed Color is one proposal for reexamining “ways of seeing = relationships.” What does the act of naming bring to us? Must everything be given a name? Does calling something by its name truly hold meaning?

It is deeply unfortunate that the moment something is named, it becomes confined within a particular world. Art is free and innovative. I believe that acquiring the freedom to see in the contemporary world leads to open and generous relationships with others, though I also know that this is not an easy task. If people have come to critically name and define others, then I believe it is the power of art that can release us from this tendency and guide us, through generosity, toward what is essential and transformative.

 

 The American painter Barnett Newman once said, “Color is something the painter creates.” Embedded in Newman’s words is a complex challenge that goes beyond the mere physical problem of color, pointing to the possibility of sublimating such challenges into expression. Around seventy years have passed since Newman painted Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?, and the world has grown increasingly chaotic. Heterogeneous elements and diverse ideologies collide, resist, and at times intermingle as they flow past us. Even making choices or decisions to grasp a single meaningful moment can be difficult, and anxiety often arises as we entrust ourselves to an ever-shifting reality.

 

 As a painter living between the present and the future, I ask myself what painting can do. Yet as a painter, I know the transformations that painting can bring to the world. I believe in the power to create the enchanting beauty of colors that exist only in painting, to enjoy constructing the language of painting, and to generate new worlds through my own practice.

The concept of my recent work is “coexistence through contrast,” as well as constructing a relationship of “touching and being touched” between painting and the person standing before it—the viewer. This is achieved through the expansive territory expressed by line, the fresh luster of oil paint, and the sensuous bodily gestures evoked by brushstrokes and the thickness of paint.

 

 “Coexistence through contrast” refers to the relationships that emerge in the moment when incompatible or opposing elements share time together. Through contrasts such as “supporting and being supported,” “bone and skin,” “hardness and softness,” and “architecture and the body,” I express the meaning of existence and beauty that arise through opposition.

I sincerely hope that even those who do not usually encounter painting or art will visit the exhibition, casually experience the pleasure and freedom of sensing images and colors, and enjoy the works. I also hope that this exhibition will become a place for open dialogue through painting.

 

7 November 2017
Naoko Watanabe (Painter / Visual Artist)

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