Chain Reaction: White-Black

Hisao Domoto was a front-line painter of contemporary art who led the post-war Japanese art scene. Born in Kyoto and having Insho Domoto, a great master of modern Japanese art as his uncle, Hisao graduated from Kyoto City Technical School of Art. While he was selected for Nitten in 1948, Hisao, who was unsatisfied with Japanese painting circles, moved to Paris in 1955. He participated in the Informel movement flourishing at that time. His works did not stay in a single style but changed from one to another and were highly acclaimed in international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and the Sao Paulo Art Biennale.

In contrast to Domoto’s previous paintings having the material and infinite impression, straight-line figurations and circle motifs emerge in Chain Reaction: White - Black. The figurations of layered perfect circles drawn with transparent acrylic paint invoke ripples covering the surface of water. The fluctuating image not only brings movement on the painting but creates the expanse of pictorial space transcending the rectangular canvas.