Toshimitsu Imaï

Galleria Il Centro, Naples, 1962
Studio Morra, Naples
Acquis auprès de celle-ci par le propriétaire actuel circa 1990

The colours are fairly accurate in the catalogue illustration although the image does not accurately convey the richness of the texture. The work is executed on its original canvas and is not relined. There are some small, thin, stable cracks in the impastos and one accretion mark on at the center of the rim of the lower edge, only visible under close inspection. Under Ultra Violet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. This work is in very good condition.
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Premier artiste japonais associé au mouvement de l’art informel qui se propage en Europe et plus particulièrement en France dans l’immédiat après-guerre, Toshimitsu Imaï œuvra dès sa rencontre avec le critique d’art Michel Tapié à Paris en 1953 et jusqu’à sa mort en 2002 à rapprocher tradition japonaise et abstraction.

Dix ans après être arrivé en Europe, Imaï réalise une série de trois tableaux démontrant la virtuosité de sa pratique à mi-chemin entre expressionisme, actionnisme et informalisme. L’exécution de L’avalanche -peinte dans l’atelier viennois d’Arnulf Rainer, fer de lance de l’art informel en Autriche dont l’œuvre radicale a marqué les esprits de son temps plus que nulle autre-  coïncide avec la consécration du travail d’Imaï. En 1962, Imaï remporte en effet le prix de la 5^ème exposition de l’art contemporain japonais et intègre les prestigieuses collections du Musée d’Art Moderne de Tokyo qui achète plusieurs de ses toiles.

L’avalanche marque aussi la culmination de la pratique de l’artiste qui se détache de toute représentation figurative pour embrasser l’abstraction pure. Selon les mots du critique Pierre Restany, le dynamisme qu'Imaï confère dès lors aux surfaces colorées est « plus immatériel que matériel dans son essence. » Les éclaboussures remplacent les lignes du pinceau. La surface picturale se complexifie. Une patine de laque satinée vient raviver les noirs, les blancs et les jaunes que l’artiste choisit pour nous inviter au voyage sensible qui est le sien. A travers l’enchevêtrement des coulées de pigments, Imaï invoque l’esprit de la nature. Tant et si bien que Pierre Restany dira de lui, confrontant sa pratique à celle d’Yves Klein que « l’un cherche la flamme de l’alchimiste qui brûle au cœur du vide, tandis que l’autre peint sur l’aile du vent. »

The first Japanese artist to be associated with the « art informel » movement in Europe and more particularly in France just after the war, Toshimitsu Imaï worked on bringing together Japanese tradition and abstraction in his art, from his encounter with Michel Tapié in Paris in 1953 until his death in 2002.

Ten years after his arrival in Europe, Imaï painted a series of three paintings that demonstrate the virtuosity of his practice, midway between expressionism, actionism and informalism. The creation of L’avalanche – painted in the Viennese studio of Arnulf Rainer, a spearhead of “informel art” in Austria whose radical work marked the spirit of his time more than any other –coincided with the recognition of Imaï’s work. In 1962, Imaï won the prize for the 5^th exhibition of Japanese contemporary art and entered the prestigious collection of the Museum of Modern Art of Tokyo, which purchased several of his canvases.

L’avalanche also marked a highpoint in the artist’s practice which he freed from all figurative representation to embrace pure abstraction. According to the critic Pierre Restany, the dynamism that Imaï bestowed upon the colored surfaces of his canvases is “more immaterial than material in its essence”. Splashes replace paintbrush lines. The pictorial surface is more complex. A patina of satiny varnish brightens the blacks, whites and yellows that the artists had chosen to evoke his journey into sensation. Through a tangle of trickled pigments, Imaï evokes the spirit of nature. So effectively that Pierre Restany, in comparing his work to Yves Klein, described one as ”seeking the flame of the alchemist whilst the other paints on the wing of the wind.”