Year: 1992
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 182 x 228 cm (71 5/8 x 89 3/4 in.)
Acquired from Hino Gallery, 2022
As a direct practitioner of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field in Japan, Matsumoto’s pink painting series is considered to be her representative work. In this piece, the entire No.150 canvas is a dynamic color surface of pink as the main theme, with overlapping brushstrokes of other colors like orange and gray spreading across the canvas. At that time, Matsumoto would lay the canvas on the floor and paint as if she were leaning over it. Although immersion is often used to express the experience of abstract paintings, her pink works in particular were precisely aimed to be all-over as if her own body was swallowed up in the painting. Matsumoto is not a large person by any means, and even if she opens her arms with the paintbrush on her hands, it would be difficult to reach the short side of the canvas. However, what about the canvas itself? It contains fluid energy like a group of rising clouds, revealing passionate and intense emotions in contrast with the pale colors that cannot be contained on the screen. This work was featured in “Today’s Artists X: NISHIMURA Morio / MATSUMOTO Yoko” exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura in 2005, and “The Light: MATUSMOTO Yoko / NOGUCHI Rika” exhibition held at the National Art Center, Tokyo in 2009.
