大村広陽の作品　｢青鸞｣は、グレ－トアルゴスと呼ばれる鳥の棲む緑の熱帯林の詳細な描写で、見る人を圧倒する。右隻には、一つがいの鳥が穏やかに留っている。一方、左隻には、広く羽を広げた雄鳥が、活発に求愛のダンスを踊っている。画面全体には、鮮やかな赤とオレンジ色のロイヤルポインセチアの花が描かれている。題材は、作者が、当時オランダ領だったインドネシアに滞在し、写生してきたものである。力強い構成で大画面をうめつくし、絹地の背面に貼られた金箔の輝きで　緑と赤色の葉や花が　際立っている。

Omura Koyo’s Blue Phoenix overwhelms the viewer with a close-up scene of a lush tropical forest inhabited by exotic birds known as the Great Argus. On the right, a pair of birds perch calmly. By contrast, on the left, the active male bird fans out its patterned feathers across the panels in a mating dance. Overall, the work displays the bright red and orange blossoms of the Royal Poinciana flower. The subject matter comes from sketches the artist made during a trip to the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). The dynamic composition fills each corner of the oversized screens, and the green and red colors of the foliage are set off by the silk backed with gold foil, casting a subtle glow over the entire scene.

The screens are without a doubt the masterpiece of the artist’s career, but remarkably they have been exhibited only once prior to the current exhibition: at the Third Teiten National Art Exhibition in Tokyo in 1921.

The inclusion of unconventional, foreign scenes on 20th-century screens reflects an increasing interest on the part of Japanese intellectuals in an outward-looking view and a focused curiosity about the rest of the world.

Rotation 1: June 26-August 9, 2009