Joyner Waddington’s, auction, May 2008, Lot 180
Private Collection, Calgary
Exhibited
“Sale of Canadian Art”, The Women’s Committee of The Art Gallery of Toronto
Unlike many of his fellow members of Painters Eleven, Kazuo Nakamura developed several artistic approaches at once, rather than commit himself to a single visual style. Nakamura returned to watercolour landscapes many times over the course of his career. In “Nightfall”, Nakamura applies his characteristic restraint and meditative focus. Executed in fluid, confident brushwork, the work conveys light and space without building up unnecessary details. The subdued, near-monochromatic palette reinforces the dramatic use of contrasting light and dark. Nakamura’s consistent focus on intellectual rigor is fascinatingly defied here by the spontaneity and immediacy so inherent to the medium of watercolour.