Lot 6: Masaaki Yamada (1929-2010) Work B.134

Masaaki Yamada (1929-2010)
Work B.134
1956

signed and dated 1956 on the lower left; signed in English and Japanese and dated 1956 in Kanji on the reverse; and affixed with one artist label on the reverse stretcher
oil on canvas

80.3 x 100 cm (31 5/8 x 39 3/8 in)

We are grateful to the Estate of Yamada Masaaki for confirming the cataloguing of the present work.
For further information on this lot please visit the website

Provenance
Gallery Yonetsu, TokyoPrivate Collection, Japan
Exhibited
Tokyo, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, endless: The Paintings of Yamada Masaaki, 6 December 2016 - 12 February 2017Kyoto, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, endless: The Paintings of Yamada Masaaki, 1 March - 9 April 2017
Literature
Kazuo Nakabayashi, endless: The Paintings of Yamada Masaaki, Tokyo 2016, p.104 & 327, illustrated in colour
山田正亮
作品B.134油彩畫布1956年作
簽名：1956 masaaki yamada（左下）masaaki yamada 山田正亮 一九五六年十月（背面）藝術家標籤（於背面畫框）
我們由衷感謝山田正亮遺產管理委員會確認此拍品資料
來源
東京Yonetsu畫廊日本私人收藏
展覽
「endless：山田正亮之絵画」，東京國立近代美術館，2016年12月6日 - 2017年2月12日「endless：山田正亮之絵画」，京都國立近代美術館，2017年3月1日 - 4月9日
出版
《endless：山田正亮之絵画》，中林和雄，東京，2016年，第104及327頁，彩圖
Japanese artist Yamada Masaaki began his artistic career in Post War Japan where the nation was rebuilding itself from the ruins of the Second World War. Against this historic backdrop, he had the opportunity to change the trajectory of the painting discipline by completely re-examining the fundamental elements in visual expressions. He discovered that seemingly basic aspects of painting such as colour harmony, lines, and compositional proportions do in fact interact and juxtapose with each other when they are reassembled and repeated. This new understanding of visual expressions formed the basis of Yamada Masaaki's unique and exuberant approach in abstraction. Looking back at the course of development of the painting discipline in the 20th century, it is evident that Yamada Masaaki constructed a coherent system of abstract language through his prolific artistic output.
Work is a series of paintings that spans over four decades of Yamada Masaaki's oeuvre, and it represents the very core of the artist's creative practice. In the sale, we are honoured to present two major works from this most iconic series. These abstract works are the crystallization of Yamada's systematic investigation into Formalism by deconstructing the very nature of painting itself. In the Work series, Yamada takes intertwining patterns and transforms them into orderly strips that emphasise the texture of flatness in the painting medium. Work B. 134 is a prime example of the organic forms that he used extensively in early works from the series. Colour planes in blue, white, green, and brown interlock with each other to form a whirlpool of hues. Such expression subverts the representation style that the artist adopted in his Still Life series. In this work, organic lines are harmoniously integrated into the spatial composition, thus creating a vine-like foliage pattern. Such treatment brings the intuitive nature of the art... For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website