Page 31 - Studio International - November 1965

pattern in space. recalling the arabesques of Japanese philosophical enterprises and publications which are
calligraphy. Finally, his natural sense of fantasy (derived. described later in this article.
doubtless, from his exceptional parents) led him quite In 1 940, as the Germans crossed the French frontier,
naturally towards the surrealists, at the peak of their Taro returned to Japan. From 1942-6, he served in the
influence and activity during those years. armed forces, survived intact. and returned to Tokyo
In 1936 Taro exhibited at the International Surrealist in June 1946 to rebuild his life as an artist. Although
Exhibition in London. His paintings now incorporated he participated, from this distance. in the 1947 Inter­
themes involving ribbons and knots which sometimes national Surrealist Exhibition in Paris (the sole Japanese
substituted for the human form. The colours were representative) he had by then thought out an intellec­
arresting, but not yet dazzling as in his work of ten tual position and developed an accompanying
years later-fresh pure tints, pale blues and greens, artistic vision which diverged considerably from
tender pinks, and a whole range of delicate greys. In orthodox surrealist tenets. He had always been too
1937 he resigned from the Association Abstraction­ much of a natural painter to accept the kind of sur­
Creation. and contributed works the following year to realist literary image-painting which was almost
the International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris. totally devoid of plasticity; Taro was. in fact, more
During 1938-9. he also attended the Sorbonne. where influenced by surrealist theory than by the movement's
A ladv and a blfd 1955 he studied sociology and anthropology, thus expressing anti-abstractionist tendencies in painting. The sur­
'Night-sky drawing' created by
the artist in a helicopter with an intellectual preoccupation which was to reach realist element in his art has always been entirely
torch and arc-lamps. photographed natural. not superimposed.
as a continuous exposure . fruition some years later in his important sociological-

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