Year: 2023
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 130.5 x 97.2 cm (51 3/8 x 38 1/4 in.)
Acquired from ArtSticker, 2023
A composition rendered in subdued colors—from dark browns to yellows—peeps out from a puddle-like shape formed toward the bottom of a canvas dominated by blue. The composition is extremely unbalanced as a painting, but it would be difficult to say that this conveys any sense of clear intent on behalf of the artist. A closer look reveals that the bold blue was the last color applied. The cloud-shaped “window” may be simply the result of the painting process, rather than of any deliberate intent. With this work, Yamada seems to be questioning what to treat as the subject of painting. In many of the artist’s works, the orthodoxy of figure and ground is inverted, with the dynamism of the brushstrokes swallowed by the tranquility of color fields. The opposite holds true as well. This phenomenon of repeated inversion is particularly prominent in this painting. Here, the blue and dark brown stand as contrasting poles. However, which is the principal feature, and which is subordinate continually reverses, depending on the viewer’s perspective. Is the blue perceived as a color field, or does one take another look at the bold brushwork and recognize it as a series of countless movements? Visually speaking, the static beauty of the brown composition within the small window of compressed information is seen to recede behind the blue, but conceptually emerges to the forefront. The trace of a winged insect, which must have flown in while the canvas was being painted remains as a white dot, and it is the brightest point within the yellow. Within this ambiguous canvas, it never fails to attract the viewer’s gaze. Keeping the insect in the work likely also came from an acceptance of the coincidental effect of Yamada’s actions, rather than any active plan.
