Page 30 - Studio International - November 1965

Taro Okamoto All or nothing

by Simon Watson Taylor

Taro Okamoto originally signed his paintings with his then, Taro has remained in Japan (apart from a journey
family name, then later with his full name: now he uses through Europe and America in 1963), working with
simply his given name, so that is how I shall refer to fantastic energy, constantly enlarging the field and
him during this introduction to the most versatile, scope of his cogent and articulately expressed artistic
original and complex personality in the world of modern ideas. A comprehensive retrospective show in Paris
Japanese art or New York of his creative work of the last two decades
In Japan, Taro has, during the last twenty years, would be an exciting and exhilarating occasion.
become an increasingly famous and controversial Meanwhile, here is a very abbreviated outline of his
figure as painter and, more recently, sculptor, creator of crowded life and of his multifarious artistic-and literary
murals in mosaic and in ceramic relief for public build­ -activities.
ings, designer of theatre decor and costumes. and Taro Okamoto was born in 1911, the son of two very
prolific author of books on modern western art and on distinguished parents. His father, lppei Okamoto, was
the traditional culture of his own country ... In Europe, a famous cartoonist who worked somewhat in the
though, his work-even as a painter-is still strangely style (and with the pungency) of Daumier, while his
The artist at work on hrs bell neglected. despite his prewar activity in the surrealist mother, Kanoko Okamoto, was equally celebrated as a
for the Zen Buddhist Temple of
KyukokuJi (Nagoya), named movement in Paris, his postwar participation in the poetess and writer of sensitively lyrical romantic novels
Kanki (Rejoice) 1965, 5 ft. high Sao Paulo Biennale of 1953 as Japan's representative, which are still widely read in Japan. Taro began to
In the background, a few of
Taro's 'Seats for not silting on' at Venice the following year, and one-man shows in paint at the age of ten. In 1929 he attended the Tokyo
Right· The bell cast in bronze New York and Paris during these two years. But since College of Art briefly, then suddenly decided to leave

for Europe In 1932 he exhibited at the Salon des
Surindependants in Paris and the following year joined
the Association Abstraction-Creation, becoming its
youngest member. He participated in the activities of
this group for the next five years, while continuing to
show annually at the Salon des Surindependants.
During this period he painted assiduously, but appar­
ently completed very few canvases. He investigated
and experimented with the basic principles of abstract
painting while gradually developing a realistic aspect
in his work: nature began to appear. but a nature that
emerged from clearly defined geometric rhythms.
It was clear that Taro would not remain satisfied with
pure abstraction as a means of expression. His strong
feeling for music (he became, during that period, and
has remained, an accomplished pianist) certainly had
its effect on his early compositions which are full of a
musical rhythm, counterpoint, resonance. Then, too, his
_, -essentially Japanese qualities of mind and feeling
added an element of sensitive, cool refinement to his
design, and a marvellously sure instinct for linear
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