Yamada Masaaki : In Pursuit of Totality (Paintings from 1950 to 1998)

WKM Gallery is pleased to announce In Pursuit of Totality: Paintings from 1950 to 1998, a retrospective exhibition showcasing key works by Japanese painter Yamada Masaaki (1929 - 2010) from Shane Akeroyd. This exhibition brings together paintings from Yamada’s three major series, Still Life, Work, and Color, tracing his evolution from contemplative still life paintings to rhythmic abstractions and, finally, to meditative color fields. Yamada’s practice is increasingly being recognized as a vital contribution to the discourse on post-war Japanese abstraction, and In Pursuit of Totality: Paintings from 1950 to 1998 offers a timely opportunity to reassess the work of a historically underacknowledged artist whose sustained formal inquiry pioneered advances in the language of modernism.

Spanning several decades of production in Tokyo following World War II, Yamada’s work is marked by a singular visual language grounded in line, color, and repetition. Yamada was deeply impacted by his experiences during the war, including three firebombing raids and the destruction of his home in Tokyo, and his practice can be understood as a sustained, lifelong attempt at grappling with the residual psychological scars of those years. His early Still Life series reflects a quiet contemplation on the ephemerality of life in the vein of vanitas, often featuring objects imbued with themes of transience or death. The flowers, fruits, vases, and various domestic objects that make up his still life paintings were largely rendered from memory, as if they were vessels for loss and longing. As the series progressed, the recognizable subjects of his paintings dissolved into increasingly deconstructed shapes that recurred across canvases, not as depictions of specific items or scenes, but as a distillation of their essence. As the boundaries between object and space collapsed further, Yamada’s foray into abstraction deepened, gradually giving way to rhythmic compositions.

This evolution into pure abstraction in the 1950s marked the beginning of his acclaimed Work series, which he continued creating for over four decades. It was during this era that he eventually arrived at the minimalist stripes and grids, rendered in a limited palette of mostly earthy tones, that gained him international recognition and have become some of his most representative work. This was followed by the Color series of the 1990s, the final culmination of the artist’s spiritual and intellectual exploration of “the equivalence of colors” and the pursuit of “totality.” These impressive yet enigmatic phrases seem to hint at a journey towards transcendence, one that found its visual representation in subtle, meditative canvases of layered color fields. The calming and subtle nature of these later works, characterized by monochromatic hues and stable repetition, stand in stark contrast to themes of violence and disorder. In this way, his works can be understood as efforts to process and ultimately reject the senseless cruelty of war, reflecting a search for peace, coherence, and connection to a greater sense of harmony and order.

The manifestation of this inner dialogue in Yamada’s work resonates with, and in some ways foreshadows, the formal developments of abstraction and minimalism that were simultaneously gaining momentum across the sea in the United States. Art historian Matthew Larking notes that Yamada’s practice “initially rehearsed 20th-century Western modernism's major moments, subsequently caught up with its achievements and then anticipated some later developments. His entire career is almost illustrative of the mid-20th-century American art critic Clement Greenberg's theorizing of modernist painting's progress toward withdrawing from content and celebrating the medium's paint and inherent two-dimensionality.”(1) In this sense, Yamada was both deeply rooted in the Japanese context and aligned with broader transformations in painting, positioning him as a figure deserving of deeper critical investigation.

Although Yamada received growing recognition in Japan and abroad from the 1960s and onwards, the artist worked in relative solitude during his lifetime, making information about his career and practice scarce. His work has undergone renewed critical and institutional attention in recent years following his death. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to revisit Yamada’s contributions to post-war art, and to reflect on his unwavering commitment to abstraction as a personal and philosophical response to the chaos of the 20th century. Organized with the generous support of Shane Akeroyd, In Pursuit of Totality: Paintings from 1950 to 1998 affirms Yamada’s position as a vital figure in the history of Japanese modernism.

1. Larking, Matthew. “Masaaki Yamada: Painter of Stripes and Colors.” The Japan Times, March 14, 2017. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2017/03/14/arts/masaaki-yamada-painter-stripes-colors

WKM Gallery 很榮幸宣布舉辦「整體性的探索：1950 – 1998 繪畫」回顧展，展出了安定山所收藏日本畫家山田正亮 (1929 – 2010) 的重要作品。本次展覽匯集了山田正亮三大系列 ——〈Still Life〉、〈Work〉和〈Color〉—— 的代表性作品，呈現了他從沉靜的靜物畫到節奏感強烈的抽象作品，最後到冥想般的色域畫，這三個階段的演變歷程。山田的創作逐漸被認為是對戰後日本抽象藝術的發展有著重要貢獻，而「整體性的探索：1950 – 1998 繪畫」展覽提供了一個契機，重新審視這位在歷史上被低估的藝術家，他長期的對形式探索推進日本現代主義藝術語言的發展。

山田正亮的創作時期主要在二戰後在東京的數十年，其獨特的視覺語言植根於「線條」、「色彩」和「重複」之上。他的人生深受戰爭經歷的影響，包括三次東京大空襲、家園被摧毀的創傷，他的藝術實踐可以被理解為畢生試圖應對戰爭所帶來的心理創傷。他早期的〈Still Life〉系列以一種接近於「虛空派」(vanitas) 的作品，描繪生命的短暫，畫中經常出現蘊含著無常或死亡主題的事物，這些靜物畫中的花卉、水果、花瓶以及各種日常物品大多是憑籍記憶描繪的，彷彿這些物件承載了失落與渴望。隨著系列的發展，他畫作中可識別的主題逐漸簡化解構成為圖形，這些圖形在畫布中反覆出現，將本質的粹煉不再成為特定的物件或場景，隨着物體與空間之間的界限進一步模糊時，山田對抽象的探索也愈加深入，最終發展為一種充滿節奏感的構圖形式。

山田的創作到了 1950 年代進一步趨向純粹的抽象，開啟了他備受讚譽的〈Work〉系列，這一系列持續創作了四十多年。在這一時期，他逐漸確立了以極簡的條紋和網格為主的風格，採用有限的大地色調。這些作品為他贏得了國際聲譽，也成為他最具代表性的作品之一。隨後進入 1990 年代，他開始創作〈Color〉系列，這是他對「色彩的替代性」與「整體性」精神與智識探索的最終成果。這些令人印象深刻且意味深長的表述，似乎暗示了一場超越的過程，而這一旅程則體現在層層疊加、充滿冥想氛圍的色域畫中。這些後期作品以細膩的單色調和穩定的重複為特徵，散發出平靜與微妙的特質，與暴力與混亂形成鮮明對比。在某種意義上，他的作品可以理解作抗拒戰爭無意義的殘酷所作出的努力，反映出他對和平、穩定的追求以及與和諧與秩序的聯繫。

山田正亮作品中展現的內在對話，不僅與美國同時期正在蓬勃發展的抽象與極簡主義的形式演進遙相呼應，某種程度上甚至預示了這些潮流的發展。藝術史學者馬修．拉金 (Matthew Larking) 指出，山田的創作「最初重現了 20 世紀西方現代主義的重要時刻，隨後追趕其成就，並預示了一些後來的發展。他整個職業生涯幾乎可以說是對 20 世紀中期美國藝術評論家克萊門特．格林伯格 (Clement Greenberg) 關於現代主義繪畫，將繪畫從內容中抽離，轉而頌讚媒介本質的平面性具象化。」從這個意義上說，山田的創作既深深植根於日本的語境，同時也與繪畫藝術更廣泛的變革緊密相連，使他成為一個值得進一步深入研究的藝術人物。

儘管山田自 1960 年代起便在日本國內及國際上獲得了越來越多的認可，這位藝術家在其一生中大多在相對孤立的環境中創作，使得關於他工作生涯和創作實踐的資訊相對稀少，作品在他身後的近年來在學術和藝術機構中再次受到關注。本次展覽提供了一個難得的機會，重新審視山田對戰後藝術的貢獻，反思他對抽象藝術對 20 世紀的混亂，所作出的一種個人且哲理性的回應。在安定山收藏的慷慨支持下「整體性的探索：1950 – 1998 繪畫」展覽，將進一步確立了山田正亮作為日本現代主義歷史中的重要地位。

1. Larking, Matthew. “Masaaki Yamada: Painter of Stripes and Colors.” The Japan Times, March 14, 2017. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2017/03/14/arts/masaaki-yamada-painter-stripes-colors