Untitled, Printing Ink Monotype c. 1960 ー野村 耕

This small but intensely dynamic monotype exemplifies Nomura Kō’s experimental use of printing materials during the early postwar decades. Produced with printing ink, the image bears the unmistakable traces of mechanical contact, pressure, and dragging motion. Rather than treating ink as a conventional drawing medium, Nomura allows it to behave physically, spreading and resisting across the paper. The composition is dominated by a dramatic diagonal division: on one side, dense bands of vertical striations sweep upward; on the other, a darker mass cuts across the field with jagged, serrated edges. Beneath these black structures, vivid layers of magenta, violet, blue, and red erupt in mottled bursts. Although abstract, the image evokes sensations of speed, vibration, and collision—an atmosphere that resonates with the experimental spirit of Japan’s postwar avant-garde. Nomura’s approach reflects a fascination with the latent expressive potential of printing technologies: tools designed for the reproduction of images become instruments for generating singular, unrepeatable ones. In this way, the monotype transforms the language of mechanical production into a vivid record of physical action and chance. Printing ink on paper, the work is framed and in excellent condition. The image is 21.5 × 14.5 cm (8-1/2 x 6 inches), the frame: 49.6 × 32.6 × 7.5 cm (20 x 13 x 3 inches).

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.