Spectral Suspension by Kazuo Nakamura
Kazuo Nakamura
Spectral Suspension
oil on canvas
37 x 31 ins ( 94 x 78.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $15,000.00 - $18,000.00
Price Realized $17,700.00
Sale date: November 19th 2019
The Morris Gallery, Toronto
Sotheby’s Canada, auction, Toronto, November 19, 2007, lot 54
Private Collection, Toronto
Iris Nowell, Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art, Vancouver/ Toronto, 2010, page 305
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.
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Kazuo Nakamura
(1926 - 2002) Painters Eleven
Born in 1929, Kazuo Nakamura was a founding member of Painters Eleven, an Ontario based group of abstract artists inspired by other Canadian landscape painters and were active between 1953-1960. Nakamura distinguished himself from the other painters in the group due to his simplistic abstractions and precision. Nakamura was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and during World War II he was imprisoned in Tashme, a Japanese internment camp. After the war, Nakamura moved to Toronto and attended the Central Technical School from 1948-51.
Using a constrained pallet and drawing inspiration from Hungarian-born photographer László Moholy-Nagy as well as fellow Painters Eleven group members like Jock Macdonald, Nakamura explored science, time, and spatial perspectives through his abstracted paintings. Through his experimental techniques he explored the perception of beauty and the social positioning of artists in society. He believed that there was a universal pattern in life that created beauty in everything, including Tashme where he was imprisoned.
Nakamura’s style can be described in four major stages, which are known as Inner Structures, Block Structures, Topology, and Number Structures. These stages were elaborated on at the 2004 posthumous retrospective “Kazuo Nakamura: A Human Measure” exhibited by the Art Gallery of Ontario. Each stage was informed by his fascination for science and influenced by the work of mathematicians and philosophers, such as Blaise Pascal. Nakamura’s earliest stage, Inner Structures, features black lines on colored backgrounds and explores the relationship to natural and built forms. Second, Block Structures channel contemporary architectural elements as well as Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico. Block Structures appear as three-dimensional geometric forms on empty planes. Inner and Block structures began after he finished his studies at the Central Technical School in the early 1950s. In Nakamura’s third stage, Topology, he was primarily focused on creating mappings using lines, curves, and grids. Finally, through Number Structures, Nakamura incorporated ideas put forth by Pascal to explore fundamental number patterns through grid-like structures. Nakamura focused on Topology and Number Structures in the 1970s and 1980s as exploration of the chaotic nature of the world in which he lived.
In 2000, Nakamura was made an honorary fellow at the Ontario College of Art and Design, he was also a member of the Canadian Academy of Arts. He passed away in 2002 in Toronto.
Literature Sources:
Carpenter, Ken, “Kazuo Nakamura,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, Accessed June 15, 2020
Koch, Phil, “Kazuo Nakamura: A Human Measure, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto,” Border Crossings, February 2005
We extend our thanks to Danie Klein, York University graduate student in art history, for writing and contributing this artist biography.
