Year: 2017
Medium: acrylic, epoxy resin on plywood
Dimensions: 68 x 121.5 cm (25 1/4 x 48 7/8 in.)
Acquired from Sotheby's, 2022
This is one of the works from Yamaguchi’s signature series “Out of Bounds”. The shape of the paint droplets created by the sweeping strokes seems to have frozen in midair and has become a signature of Yamaguchi’s work. “Brushstroke” is not just a painting component, but is something capable of showing itself as a painting. In the past, the Pop Art leader Roy Lichtenstein created a “Brushstroke” series. He took the depiction of a “painting” from the comic book and re-presented it as a painting or sculpture through his work. Comic book depiction had been deformed to represent painting and Lichtenstein criticized this “painting” by replacing it with a real painting. If there is a precedent for similar thinking, it is the materiality of paint raised by Abstract Expressionists such as Pollock from New York. However, they remained dependent on the canvas as a support and Frank Stella whose works are deviated from the rectangle is away from the fluidity of paint. Additionally, Lichtenstein aimed to express his thoughts on the mutuality of expression between the different forms of painting and comics, as well as on the replication and flatness in painting. Therefore, based on the achievements of the pioneers, Yamaguchi should be highly evaluated for showing in this series the possibility that the material paint itself can stand on its own as a painting.
