A signature work on paper which intimates plaster and earth on paper by Ono Hidetaka dated 1959 and framed in silvered wood. The frame is 56 x 47 x 4.7 (22-1/4 x 18-3/4 x 2 inches), the work itself is 37.5 x 28.5 (15 x 1-1/4 inches). There is minor foxing visible about the edges, otherwise is in excellent condition. The work is accompanied by its original card box.
Ono Hidetaka (1922- 2002) was born in Kyoto and graduated from the Kyoto City School of Fine Arts and Crafts in 1941, receiving the Kokusaikai Prize at the 2nd Kokusaikai Exhibition, and completed the Kyoto City School of Painting in 1943. He first gained recognition in 1947 with Spring in Jonan, which won the Mayor’s Prize at the 3rd Kyoto Exhibition, and with Sea, which was accepted by the Nitten Exhibition. In 1949, he joined the newly formed avant garde Pan Real Art Association participating in numerous exhibitions thereafter. Inspired by Coptic textiles at the 1957 Asia-Africa Art Exhibition, he began creating his signature abstract works using jute canvas. He exhibited both domestically and internationally at events such as the 1958 and 1961 Pittsburgh International Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions. During the 1960s, his work appeared in New Generation of Nihonga (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) and the Japanese Contemporary Painting Exhibition (Corcoran Gallery, USA). He became an associate professor at Kyoto City University of Arts in 1970, full professor in 1974, and professor emeritus in 1987, and from 1971 began producing realistic flower paintings influenced by Song and Yuan dynasty styles. He was honored as a Kyoto Cultural Merit Award recipient in 1983 and received the Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Merit Award in 1989. His works were included in major exhibitions such as A Facet of Postwar Nihonga: Search and Conflict (1986, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art), Four Artists in Nihonga (1987, Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art), Japanese Art – Reviving 1964 (1996, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), and The Birth of Panreal: Postwar Nihonga Innovation (1998, Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya), as well as solo exhibitions at O Museum, earning him acclaim both in Japan and abroad. His works are held in the collections of Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Kariya City Art Museum, Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, The Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, Niigata City Art Museum, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, and Toyohashi City Museum of Art among others.
