Hiromichi Kimura


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- ABOUT KIMURA - SHUN RAN SHU GIKU - SHISEI YUMEI - SHIZAI SENRI - ROTO EKISO






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HIROMICHI KIMURA — THE MAN

The city of Kanazawa on the Sea of Japan has a proud heritage as a center of traditional Japanese culture and art, and it was here in 1929 that Hiromichi Kimura was born. From childhood he aspired to be an artist, and studied oil painting at the local art academy, Kanazawa Bijutsu Kogei Tanki Daigaku, or Kanazawa Junior College of Arts and Crafts. Later he went to Waseda University in Tokyo, where he studied Asian (i.e. Chinese) and Japanese art history.

After graduation from Waseda he returned to his hometown, where he became a professor at his alma mater, and retained that position until he retired in 1995. Taking advantage of his leisure, Kimura has again returned to painting.

HIROMICHI KIMURA — THE WORKS

The unique features of Kimura’s work derive from his many years devoted to the study of aesthetics and art history, and from the embodiment of his own aesthetic theories. The German art historian, Dr. Gert Helge Vogel, says that the artist who produced these experimental works is without parallel in the world.

In China the orchid, the bamboo, the chrysanthemum, and the plum have been regarded since ancient times as distinctly superior to other flowers, and are said to embody the character of the ideal Confucian gentleman. They are sometimes referred to as “the four Confucians,” or “the four philosophers,” and have often been the subject of paintings by literary men of culture and sensibility. They are also used as subjects by ink wash painters for practicing brush strokes. Thus the respective shapes of the orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, and plum are key images in East Asian art.

Orchids Bamboo Chrysanthemum Plum
Details from paintings of the orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum and plum, by Chinese Ming dynasty artist Wen Cheng-ming (1470-1559).

This present collection of Kimura’s paintings is made of compositional works in which only two of the four basic elements are shown. The orchid here represents the long line while the bamboo leaves represent the short line.

The artist’s personal theory says that “art requires more than just sensitivity.” While intellect is important, he says, one must also be creative and willing to break new ground. In doing so he reconstructs Chinese characters used to express the truths of Zen Buddhism and the wisdom of the East, adding to them an element of ornamentation -- which is said to be the defining characteristic of Japanese art. The compositional expression that embodies these features aims to create a complete whole, satisfying to both the eye and the intellect.

Ding



TITLE PAGE - ABOUT KIMURA - SHUN RAN SHU GIKU - SHISEI YUMEI - SHIZAI SENRI - ROTO EKISO