This monotype print exemplifies the intensely physical and exploratory approach that characterizes Nomura Ko’s work of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Working with printing ink and pigment applied directly to an intermediary surface, the artist built the composition through scraping, dragging, and pressing motions that leave a vivid record of contact between tool, ink, and paper. At the center of the composition, a roughly oval form begins to coalesce from the surrounding field of marks. Within this shape, layers of white produce a network of luminous streaks that read simultaneously as light and abrasion. Around it, the surrounding surface thickens into a dark, almost geological crust of black ink, cut through by sharp diagonal incisions and splintered linear structures. Subtle accents of red and ochre pigment punctuate the predominantly monochromatic field, introducing flashes of color that animate the otherwise austere palette. Entirely abstract, the composition evokes an atmosphere of turbulent formation the dense lattice of marks suggests both construction and erosion. Nomura’s monotypes occupy a particularly compelling position, drawing on the technologies of printing, traditionally associated with reproduction, employed to generate singular and irreproducible images. Each work becomes a record of a moment of action where the mechanical and the improvisational are inseparably intertwined. Printing ink on paper, the image is 36.8 x 24.7 cm (14-1/2 x 10 inches) the frame 53.5 x 39.6 x 2.8 cm and all in excellent condition.
Nomura Ko (1927–1991) was born in Kyoto and graduated from the Nihonga Department of Kyoto Municipal College of Art in 1948. In 1950 he joined the Pan Real Art Association (until 1965), establishing himself as a significant figure in the postwar avant-garde movement in Japanese-style painting. Initially influenced by Surrealism, he shifted in the later 1950s toward abstraction and collage, employing unconventional materials such as newspaper printing molds, industrial waste, slate, and cement. From the mid 60”s he was driven beyond the framework to be a pioneer in installation exhibition, creating one-time works which allowed the room to be the frame. Through materially driven works and these later three-dimensional and spatial constructions, Nomura fundamentally redefined the physical and conceptual boundaries of Nihonga. His major exhibition history includes the aforementioned Pan Real (1950-1965), the Asahi New Artist Exhibition, the Asahi Selected Exhibition and the Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition. Trends in Contemporary Painting (1963), and Today’s Artists ’64 (1964). From 1978 onward, he participated almost annually in the Ge Exhibition. In 1986, he was featured in A Section of Postwar Nihonga at Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum. A major retrospective, Kyoto Art: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow III – Nomura Ko, was held at Kyoto City Museum of Art in 1989. His work was posthumously included in The Turning Point of Postwar Nihonga at Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts in 1993, confirming his pivotal role in transforming postwar Nihonga. Work by him is held in the collections of The Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Kariya City Art Museum, Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, Meguro Museum of Art in Tokyo, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, Osaka Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka Prefectural 20th Century Art Collection, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art, Toyohashi City Museum of Art, Wakayama Museum of Modern Art, Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum, Sakuragaoka Museum, The, Kyoto University Art Museum and Kyoto City University of Arts among others.
