<b>THE EARTH</b>Ryusei Kishida1915<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Kishida was a Japanese painter in Taisho and early Showa-era Japan. He is best known for his realistic yoga-style portraiture but also for nihonga-style paintings in the 1920s. His work is a mixture of Western-style Plein-air painting and a fascination with the avant-garde styles of fauvism, cubism, humanism, and post-impressionism. The artist died at the young age of 38 but left an important body of work, including two paintings that were designated National Important Cultural Properties by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.

Executed in an expressionist style, a human figure is shown inside the earth. Naked, its androgynous form is shown in the fetal position, appearing to unfold, almost germinating, as if a seed. Two plants are shown flanking the figure with roots penetrating the earth. Above is a sun shown at midday, directly positioned at the center, just below the title.

This striking composition shows the artist's fascination with humanism seen through the leans of expressionism. The striking composition coveys a theme of rebirth. This work was produced only three years into the new Taisho era, which was a short-lived period characterized by liberalism, democracy, and artistic progress.

Connoisseur's Note

Though not directly associated with the newly minted sosaku hanga movement,  Kishida was quite interested in Western artistic movements, particularly expressionism. The artist was keenly aware of European self-directed woodblock prints, particularly those of Edvard Munch, and, in that vein, produced this work entirely by himself. This work is an exceedingly rare print, among of only a handful of printed works by Kishida.