Year: 2021
Medium: oil, pigment, cymbal, brush on canvas
Dimensions: 180 x 180 cm (70 7/8 x 70 7/8 in.)
Acquired from Ginza Tsutaya Books, 2022
The title reveals that the person depicted is jazz drummer Art Blakey. Mitobe has depicted various prominent figures in a satirical or respectful way. In this work, the word "ART!" is bouncing sprightly on a vibrant green background as if a play on words. Like Mitobe’s other works, the drum body, Blakey's face and other objects are depicted with an excessive amount of paint, forming a bulge that appears to be reliefs. Furthermore, the cymbal on the left shoulder is forcefully attached to the canvas. Mitobe’s paintings reject imaginary spatiality according to perspective, instead, she confronts them physically. It is precisely because she greedily captures the motifs by smearing a large amount of paint onto the canvas that allows her to create such an overwhelmingly powerful work, such as this one that feels as if Blakey’s iconic drum rolls at any moment.
