My image is in my head, thus it is not physical. The true state of the image is fluid and it could manifest in any form, so no one can see it. The image becomes visible when it comes out of my head and acquires various forms. That’s what everyone is seeing.
“It is a rare occasion when the image’s true state and form match. For me, it’s always incomplete.”
It’s almost like I have to keep it incomplete to match…….
Masato Kobayashi “Paint of this Planet — Duifhuisstraat 52” p.340
About Exhibition
Kobayashi’s paintings are born from the harmony of real and imaginary light, expanding into the space and taking in what is in the space at the same time. The frame-like pieces of wood around his paintings are projected outward and bent, which give the viewers a hard time describing what they are looking at. It is unclear whether his paintings are complete. If a painting is a physical material that relies on the real world, notwithstanding the shape and size of its structural support, there should not be a clear border dividing the real world and the painting. By cropping its outer frame intuitively as “Painting of this Planet,” Kobayashi can simultaneously realize the two image worlds: the world in which he sees an image in his head and the world in which the viewers recreate their own through contemplation.
Masato KOBAYASHI, Model of this Planet (Woman with a Scar on Her Chest), 2021
oil, canvas, wood, ca. 220x220x65cm
“This Planet” might also be an intuitive frame that clarifies its nature. It’s like adding a frame around a painting to differentiate it from the wall.
Masato Kobayashi “Paint of this Planet — Duifhuisstraat 52” p.363
Masato KOBAYASHI, Portrait of the artist, 2020, oil, canvas, wood, 224x197x11cm
The horse portrait, having a chunk of paint on its nose like dirt and a paintbrush in its mouth, is the portrait of myself. —I have my own family.
Masato Kobayashi
In this exhibition, Kobayashi will present a new series of works in which he uses his model as his motif, in addition to the portraits of a horse in which the horse holds a paintbrush in its mouth and looks like it is about to come out of the painting. In one artwork, the depicted model is holding onto the side of the canvas and about to emerge from the canvas (Model of this Planet (Woman with a Scar on Her Chest), 2021). In another one, the traces that the fleeing model made creates a new painting (Running-Man, 2021). By letting the physicality of the painted object decide the physicality of the painting, Kobayashi’s paintings generate a reverse power dynamic where the model, not the artist, controls his paintings. After all, his image is not depicted on canvas but located far beyond meaning and concept. As the spectators of the planet, we will have to revolutionize the field of our imagination and create new images of our own. Along with this exhibition, we will present Kobayashi’s installation, A pair of artworks, exhibited separately = LOVE, connecting the Roppongi Art Complex, thanks to the support from the Contemporary Art Foundation. Please enjoy the exhibition.
July 2021, ShugoArts
Information
Friday, September 10 – Saturday, October 16, 2021
ShugoArts
12am ‒ 6pm, Closed on Sun, Mon and Public Holidays
Curated by Minako Ishii
Contemporary Art Foundation, 4F Piramide Building, 6-6-9, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Thu – Sat, noon – 6pm, closed on Sun – Wed and Public Holidays
Contemporary Art Foundation
Masato Kobayashi was born in Tokyo in 1957. He was the Japanese representative of the 1996 São Paulo Bienniale. In 1997, invited by Jan Hoet, he traveled to Europe, and continued to create works in various locations while based in Ghent, Belgium. Kobayashi returned to Japan in 2006 and began working based in Tomonoura, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima. He was also a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts from 2017 to 2023. He has developed a unique technique of applying color by rubbing it into the canvas while supporting the fabric with one hand, simultaneously stretching it over the wooden frame to bring the painting to life and “aiming for a painting that does not lose its essence by merely existing.” Kobayashi has prolifically produced paintings that possess a form and unique brightness that can only emerge from that specific situation.
Selected solo exhibitions: “About Freedom”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; “Family of this Planet”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2021; “Artist and the Model”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2019; “ART TODAY 2012”, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, 2012; “MASATO KOBAYASHI – The Paint of the Planet”, Nariwa Museum, Okayama, 2009; “Starry Paint, stars of outer space by pure painting”, Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden, 2004; “A Son of Painting Masato Kobayashi”, S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2001; “KOBAYASHI Masato”, The Miyagi Museum of Art, 2000.
Publications: Masato Kobayashi MK, HeHe, 2024; The autobiographical novel trilogy, Paint of this Planet—Under the tree at Hitotsubashi University, ART DIVER, 2018; Paint of this Planet—Duifhuisstraat 52, ART DIVER, 2020
Selected Public Collections: Iwaki City Art Museum (Iwaki, Japan). The Miyagi Museum of Art (Sendai, Japan). The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). Utsunomiya Museum of Art (Utsunomiya, Japan). S.M.A.K. The Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Ghent, Belgium). The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Shizuoka, Japan)
