The Morris Gallery, Toronto
Sotheby’s Canada, auction, Toronto, November 19, 2007, lot 54
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature
Iris Nowell, Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art, Vancouver/ Toronto, 2010, page 305
A member of Painters Eleven, Kazuo Nakamura favoured the distillation of restrained, meditative calm as if harnessing the feeling of gazing on a still glass-like lake at dawn. Influenced by Jock Macdonald’s interest in László Moholy-Nagy’s reading of science, Nakamura was concerned with the fundamental universal patterns found in nature and science. One of the artist’s favourite magazines was Scientific American, lending insight into the artist’s total fascination and preoccupation with exploring the sciences and mathematics.
On Nakamura, Ihor Holubizky explains: “more than the difference between his work and that of his contemporaries, but the manner in which the work forms an interdependent whole, and a system unto itself.” He continues that the artist seemed to have been “searching for some ‘cosmic insight’ or truth.” The artist seemed to have used his artistic practice as the vehicle in the deeper exploration into the mathematical cosmos.
One of many artworks titled with borrowed scientific language, “Spectral Suspension” is an immersive yet peacefully balanced composition with visual cues to scientific tools of measures and calibration. The prismatic colour bars in primary tones at the upper and left edge of the composition direct the eye around the perimeter of the canvas before settling on the central white outlined square at the centre of the composition. Set against a rich inky black the interior of the square is divided into four equal quadrants, subtly distinguished by the direction of the brushstroke and tone of black applied. This exceptionally subtle technique employed by Nakamura exemplifies the artist’s exacting restraint and precision in his works. The black tone used is not a pure black; rather, the artist has mixed in tones of indigo to give a rich velvet depth to the pigment and as a result imbues the viewer with the sense of staring into the nighttime skies, unpolluted with city lights, the darkness seemingly infinite. In this way, there is a metaphysical experience within the dialogue between viewer and artwork. The feeling of infinity brings both fear and wonder and centres the viewer’s read on a higher purpose or understanding within the cosmos.
