月花 (Ipomoea alba) / No idea why I was going there / あるいは空中の椰子果 あお空の奥か (le bleu du ciel) / Seen with an ideal, Out the window / きたいの中に溶ける魚
Year: 2022
Medium: acrylic on canvas, framed
Dimensions: 20.5 x 16.5 cm (8 1/8 x 6 1/2 in.) / 25.1 x 18.3 cm (9 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.)
Acquired from Blum & Poe, 2023
This is a pair of works from the artist’s “Zero Thumbnail” series. They take their inspiration from “Sea” and “The Moon and Flowers” (painted in 1929 and 1926 respectively; both in the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), masterpieces by Harue Koga, who was active in the Taishō and Shōwa periods. Koga was known for adopting the avant-garde movements of the 20th century, such as Cubism, Futurism, and Surrealism, one after another. “Sea” is known as one of the earliest Surrealist works in Japan. “The Moon and Flowers” was painted during a period in which Koga was obsessed with Paul Klee’s art, and the influence of that artist is clear. Okazaki is also a critic, and, as one can imagine from the titles of these works, he is sure to have analyzed Koga as part of his creative process. Okazaki cannot have overlooked the fact that Surrealism and Klee’s thinking, from which Koga took inspiration, were influenced in no small part by contemporary developments in Freud’s psychoanalysis. Okazaki skillfully manipulates context in the “Zero Thumbnail” series. The titles of the artworks demonstrate his interdisciplinary approach, tying together various academic fields and cultures in something akin to a game of free association. With these works, Okazaki’s poetry leaps effortlessly into art trends from a century ago and their underlying ideas, starting with the painter Harue Koga.
