Despite being a nihonga painter using iwaenogu (Japanese mineral powdered pigments), Shimomura Ryonoshuke stands firmly in the attitude of avant-garde throughout his artistic career to ceaselessly question about the tradition focusing on beauty of nature in nihonga painting. This is a small work that depicts Shimomura’s most favorite subject: bird. When we are surprised that Shimomura has a penchant for such a typical subject existed in the tradition that he throws doubt on, his stance seems somewhat contradictory. Yet, Shimomura’s bird painting is not at all a depiction of birds living in the real world. A work, Ransho (flight of a mythological bird), submitted to the twenty-sixth Panreal Exhibition, borrows the shape of a bird’s wings to convey the vitality that our land passes down from generation to generation, as well to symbolize the death and the birth, a circle of life. Another work, Flying by Moonlight, portraying something soaring in a dark night backdropped by a full moon, exemplifies Shimomura’s true intention that reproduces an invisible aura through a visible object.

In this work, likewise, all the facts, such as the head, the feathered body, and the tail, suggest it is likely a bird. In the background, the gouache applied on the fabric is so harmonized with both the Big Bang-like energetic touches and the fusion of varied colors that gives a unique atmosphere of its own.

Shimomura Ryonosuke (nihonga painter, copperplate printmaker; 1923−1998)
Osaka-born nihonga painter and copperplate printmaker. Graduated from the Kyoto Municipal Special School of Painting. In 1949, founded the Panreal Art Association in Kyoto and aimed to revolutionize nihonga. At first influenced by Cubism, later concentrated on the motif of birds and shifted to abstract expression featuring lines. Established individual style of using various materials and techniques, such as papier-mâché, coloring, collage, etc. Exhibited works and held one-man shows in Japan and abroad. Designated as a Person of Cultural Merit in Kyoto City and received the Art and Culture Prize of Kyoto City. Appointed Otani University Professor.