Year: 2022
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 91 x 65 cm (35 7/8 x 25 1/2 in.)
Acquired from Taka Ishii Gallery, 2022
Hoki is known for his unique painting technique called “nihon-ga” (double-line painting). By simultaneously wielding two paintbrushes of cool and warm colors, parallel double lines are created. In Hoki’s early works, Hoki worked on drawings using black dots. However, as he gazed at those black dots, he experienced an illusion that they were separated into two colors, burnt carmine and indigo which were not supposed to exist. Since then, he was inspired and started to produce “nihon-ga”. In “nihon-ga”, neither of the two lines is the primary line, but both are secondary lines. Since the main subject is no longer visible, the line depictions themselves on the canvas do not play the role of indicating anything directly. Abstraction, in art, refers to the process of abandoning individual meanings and figuration to reach universality. Hoki's “nihon-ga” can be seen as an attempt to visualize this process. This work should be viewed with an understanding of Hoki's artistic approach. By wiping off or penetrating the finely tuned colors between the hues from blue to reddish-brown, Hoki controls the color tones of the entire painting splendidly. While the warm and cold colors conflict with each other, no flaws can be seen in terms of harmony. Additionally, the separation phenomenon which used to be working clearly with two lines, is now not only doubled but more multi-layered in a complex way due to the rapid brushwork. The contrasting relationship between the penetrating color surface and the sharp lines is vividly demonstrated. While this work is created on canvas, “nihon-ga” is a technique that began as a drawing, and this piece showcases the trial results of developing this technique in a pictorial way.
