Okada Kenzo

26 April to 8 June 2008

Hours: 9:30a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

Admission: charged

Kenzo Okada, who died at the age of seventy-nine on July 25, 1982, is an international artist with a high reputation in the States and other foreign countries.

He was born in Yokohama in 1902 and brought up in comfortable circumstances in Tokyo. Before World War II, he was already active as a member of Nika-kai, known for the urbane refinement and abundant romantic lyricism of his painting. In 1950, however, with characteristic resolve, he decided to go to the States in search of new possibilities. There, in the new and unfamiliar atmosphere of New York, he encountered abstract expressionism, and spent the following years experimenting toward the establishment of his own unique style based on a typically Japanese sense of beauty. The new world of the abstract that emerged - he himself named it “Yugenism”, after Yugen one of the key concepts in understanding the Japanese esthetic sensibility - attracted much attention and high critical esteem.

Since he lived for so many years in the United States, mainly in New York, where almost a11 his new works were first presented, there have been few chances to see his work in Japan. Nor, ever since his name became associated with the eye-catching term “Yugenism”, has much attention been paid to the works painted before he went to the States. In this exhibition, the first major retrospect since his death, we have sought to give a general perspective of his art, ranging from works of the early period that have hardly ever been shown before to the last works of his final period.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the museums and collectors who have so generously loaned the invaluable works in their possession, and to all those others who have worked together to make this exhibition possible.