Catalogue Three Artists of Mie; ASANO Yae KOBAYASHI Kenzo, ITO Toshihiko　2007.3

Foreword

It is a great pleasure for us to present you the exhibition featuring three artists, Asano Yae (1914-1996), Kobayashi Kenzou (1924-2001) and Itou Toshihiko (1928-2006), who were born and active in Mie prefecture throughout all their lives. In Asano’s oeuvre, one of its trademarks is line, which resulted from scratching on the ground of white or black. We can see them transform themselves freely on the canvas. In Kobayashi’s, bright and gentle colours spin the fairly-tale images. Through an emphasis on materiality with dark tone and conceptual reconsideration of the act of making works, Itou attained to a serene white relief folded in the box. Although they are distinctly different from one another in the style, they came into intimate relation.

Mie Prefecural Art Musseum has held retrospective exhibitions for respective artists, and collected their works. Ito passed away in November 2006. We exhibit together three artists’ works selected from the collection of the Mie Prefectural Art Museum to pay our tribute to his memory. We expect this exhibition will provide a good opportunity to contribute to the future of the culture in Mie prefecture, by re-evaluating their arts.

March　2007
Mie Prefectural Art Museum