Tetsuya Ishida at the Asian

This weekend while checking out some Heian period Japanese Buddhist art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, I happened upon a really interesting exhibit of paintings by the late Japanese contemporary artist, Tetsuya Ishida.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures so this won't be a full review, but his work so effected me that I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

His paintings, which had never before been showed in the U.S., have been displayed in a small gallery room on the second floor of the museum since November of 2014.  Each painting is captivating in its own unique way, surrealistically showing Ishida in forms of entrapment.

In one painting, Ishida is a waiter with the body of a construction machine.  In another, his childhood body is encapsulated, with his large head poking out one side, in a white, rectangular school building while children mill around in rows in the courtyard.  In another, Ishida sits in his bedroom, his bed made of a grave, with a body's limbs sticking out from under it.

The exhibit stated that Ishida's work may be interpreted as autobiographical or social.  It surely reflects a kind of melancholy, the sort that wraps you up and makes you feel suffocated in your own skin.  I don't think it's important if Tetsuya Ishida meant for his work to be about him or about his society because the feelings and issues he expresses are so universal.  You can look at one of his paintings and instantly understand that feeling, that certain kind of anguish.  I looked, and I thought "I know this, intimately."

Tetsuya Ishida was born in 1973 and died in 2005 at age thirty-two.  Tetsuya Ishida: Saving the World With a Brushstroke was on view at the Asian Art Museum from November 2014 until February 22, 2015.

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Optimism and Power: Delgreta Brown's (N)EON

                       

Delgreta Brown, Detail of Venus Returns, Acrylic on Canvas.

Delgreta Brown, a Sacramento contemporary artist, held the solo exhibition, (N)EON: The New Eon at Sacramento State this month and it was both illuminating and inspiring.  Right off the bat, the exuberant colors and inviting shapes on the canvases grabbed your attention.  Brown calls herself an Afrofuturism artist and this exhibit sure lives up to that name, exuding hope and power.

Delgreta Brown, The Simplicity of Kings & Crowns, Acrylic on Canvas.

The two paintings pictured above are staged in the same way, with three lined-up similar yet completely different figures against a landscape background.  Both paintings have the figures with closed eyes, faces tilting upward, as if trusting their surroundings completely and basking in it, with a sense of complete contentment. Brown seems to be alluding to a perfect future where African-American men and women are completely at peace with themselves, each other, and the space and people around them.  There is a power to these paintings, and to their titles.  Brown has set up these figures as kings and goddesses, placing them at the highest points of hierarchy and that says something profound about the future that Brown suggests.

Delgreta Brown, Detail of The Perfect Blackness, Acrylic on Canvas.

The theme of power in the "new eon" is definitely continued in Brown's painting, The Perfect Blackness.  Just the title matched with this powerful looking man against a backdrop of bright colors is slightly jolting.  There is nothing about this painting that could be read as anything but strong.  The hues of brown paint shape his skin and his expression is of something like fortitude and determination.  The paint in the background forms a kind of celestial scenery and this man seems to transform into a god among men.

"I just want to promote positivity," Brown says and that is indeed the strongest message in this collection of paintings.  She may not be critiquing the world, but she is showing it a kind of hopefulness that is a rarity. Brown celebrates the power, beauty, and optimism in people of color and it is a brilliant thing to witness.

Delgreta Brown, AM Love, Acrylic on Canvas.

Delgreta Brown, Amure, Acrylic on Canvas.

                          Delgreta Brown, The Path of The Giraffe Thru The Tiger's Eye, Acrylic on Masonite.

                           
                                                                  Delgreta Brown, Supernatural Love, Acrylic on Canvas.                                         

Delgreta Brown, Detail of Ba Neter, Acrylic on Canvas.

Delgreta Brown can be found at about.me/delgreta.brown

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an introduction of sorts

I guess this is where we meet the blogger.

My name is Lydia, I'm in my mid-twenties and I am an Art History major at Sacramento State.

Art has always been an important part of my life.  It has always been something that awed and inspired me.  When I was about eight years old I owned books on Monet and Van Gogh and I would pour myself over them.

My concentration is in Modern and Contemporary art.  My true passion is with late nineteenth century European art, especially with the post-impressionists and beyond, but there's something about Contemporary that grabs me and holds my attention.

I am always interested in how artists strive to "kill their fathers" as Picasso said.  I am always interested in how history and culture shape art and how art shapes history and culture.

I look forward to writing about contemporary artists and their relationships with our culture and our shared history.

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