Lot 1349: GO YAYANAGI

GO YAYANAGI
(B. 1933)
Blazed Up Life
signed 'yayanagi' in English; dated '71-74' (lower right); signed and titled in Japanese; signed 'yayanagi' in English; dated ''71-'74' (on the reverse)
oil and liquitex (acrylic) on canvas
130 x 162 cm. (51 1/8 x 63 3/4 in.)
Painted in 1971-1974

Shizuoka, Japan, Ikeda Museum of 20th Century Art, Yayanagi Go- Challenge to Art, 1 August-30 November 1981.

In Cell Division A & Cell Division B (1965) (Lot 1352), Yayanagi displays his early fascination with individuality, an echo of his childhood on a farm in Hokkaido. We observe an artistic exploration of how to effectively pursue this in a cohesive and comprehensive manner. There is a clear transition from warm to bright colours used in his later Red Lamp (Lot 1351) where generous colour blocks meld with fine black outlines, evoking traditional Japanese woodblock prints and his contemporaneous printmaking studies in Paris. The artist's education in printmaking is further explored in his later Fictional Love (Lot 1350) and Blazed Up Life (Lot 1349), where Yayanagi irrationally intertwines images in descending or ascending order, purposefully distorting visual perspective to emphasize sporadic excitement, lightening the overall mood. From the use of aerial perspectives, to side views to magnified images, Yayanagi creates a playful atmosphere for the viewer's eyes to feast. The intricate intertwining of patterns, female figures and simplified shapes deftly incorporate safari animals, and references to vibrant tropical cultures he encountered during inspirational travels in Brazil and Africa. Armed with imagination, we are able to conjure ingenious forms from the liquid colours of Yayanagi's canvas, re-constructing his worldly passions from within the canvas. His ingenious and autobiographical conceptions reach a universal audience, so striking in their astonishing colours that they seem to take on life of their own.