MURAYAMA,Kaita(1896-1919)
Self-portrait
1916
Oil on canvas
60.5×50.0cm

This“Self Portrait”,drawn with powerful and unrestrained touch of the brush using colors such as white and yellow on a base of dark brown,is a work which gives oppressive and stifling impression.

Kaita Murayama was born in Yokohama in 1896 and died at a very young age of 22 in 1919.Kaita had appeared onto the Western style painting scene like a comet around the time this work was produced,which was around 1914 or 1915.In 1914,he became a research student at the Japan Art Institute.In the following year,he was awarded the Art Institute Award for“Cannas and a Young Gile”which he exhibited in the 2nd Japan Art Institute Exhibition and drew great attention as a Western style painter of the Taisho period.(He was awarded the same Award again in 1917.)

Kaita was a very sensitive youth.This was a period when he,as an artist ,was struggling with how to express himself while leading a decadent life and displaying his talent as a poet.

In many cases,when an artist paints a self portrait,intention of the expression will be different from their conventional works.In the case of Kaita,it can be imagined that it probably had the strong intention of being a record of his own feelings.

In this “Self Portrait”,based on fauvism into which he ventured his short but burning life,lies a charm which only Kaita Murayama could have achiebed.

(Takashi Morimoto)