Exhibition/event has ended.
Genichiro Inokuma: People and Animals and Objects
Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art
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Artists
Genichiro Inokuma
All manner of people and animals and objects residing within me are lined up waiting, eager to be painted. *
The paintings of Genichiro Inokuma (1902–1993) contain a plethora of motifs, starting with people, animals, and other things living and inanimate, all on display in this exhibition encompassing Inokuma’s output from the early period to the final years.
From his student days at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now Tokyo University of the Arts) through his Paris years, Inokuma painted human figures often, though animals feature frequently too. From around 1950, cats joined people as a significant motif. Free-spirited felines with their nonchalant disregard for human convenience made a seductive subject for an artist who at times lived with as many as ten of them.
Following his relocation to New York in 1955 Inokuma’s works on canvas grew more abstract in style, however, his covers for the magazine Shosetsu Shincho depicted clearly the city’s inhabitants, plus dogs, horses, and other creatures that live alongside humans. Then from 1975 onward, as he split his time between Tokyo and Honolulu, Inokuma’s canvases were dominated by flora and fauna, or bizarre mechanical forms. His final years were marked by a return to the figurative, with people plus creatures such as birds, cats, and dogs sharing the picture plane with other motifs.
Throughout his life, Genichiro Inokuma turned his gaze to “all manner of people and animals and objects,” portraying them with great richness of expression. Paintings in which all motifs live and breathe equally show how we too can turn our gaze to the myriad entities, living and otherwise, that share our planet.
*Genichiro Inokuma, “When one goes beyond conventional wisdom,” Guén Inokuma, Mitsukoshi, 1990.
The paintings of Genichiro Inokuma (1902–1993) contain a plethora of motifs, starting with people, animals, and other things living and inanimate, all on display in this exhibition encompassing Inokuma’s output from the early period to the final years.
From his student days at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now Tokyo University of the Arts) through his Paris years, Inokuma painted human figures often, though animals feature frequently too. From around 1950, cats joined people as a significant motif. Free-spirited felines with their nonchalant disregard for human convenience made a seductive subject for an artist who at times lived with as many as ten of them.
Following his relocation to New York in 1955 Inokuma’s works on canvas grew more abstract in style, however, his covers for the magazine Shosetsu Shincho depicted clearly the city’s inhabitants, plus dogs, horses, and other creatures that live alongside humans. Then from 1975 onward, as he split his time between Tokyo and Honolulu, Inokuma’s canvases were dominated by flora and fauna, or bizarre mechanical forms. His final years were marked by a return to the figurative, with people plus creatures such as birds, cats, and dogs sharing the picture plane with other motifs.
Throughout his life, Genichiro Inokuma turned his gaze to “all manner of people and animals and objects,” portraying them with great richness of expression. Paintings in which all motifs live and breathe equally show how we too can turn our gaze to the myriad entities, living and otherwise, that share our planet.
*Genichiro Inokuma, “When one goes beyond conventional wisdom,” Guén Inokuma, Mitsukoshi, 1990.
Schedule | Jun 30 (Sun) 2024-Sep 23 (Mon) 2024 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Adults ¥300; University Students ¥200; High School Students and Under, Under 18s, Seniors 65 & Over residing in Marugame city, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion free. | ||||
| Website | https://www.mimoca.org/en/collection/2024/06/30/3019/ | ||||
| Venue | Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art http://mimoca.org/en/ | ||||
| Location | 80-1 Hama-machi, Marugame-shi, Kagawa 763-0022 | ||||
| Access | 1 minute walk from Marugame Station on the JR Yosan line. | ||||
| Phone | 0877-24-7755 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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