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“Dusk” Lacquer Screen (T-4810)

Creator: Yoshio Murata
Offered by: Thomsen Gallery

Description
Murata Yoshio (1908-1987)
“Dusk” Lacquer Screen, 1953, Japan
Colored lacquer on wood
Size 34¾ x 35¾ x 11 in. (88.5 x 91 x 28 cm)

A square tsuitate (standing screen), the wood core lacquered in relief with a stony riverbed or beach at dusk with two dragonflies in black lacquer flying above, fitted with two transverse feet finished in grey lacquer.

The original fitted wooden tomobako storage box inscribed and signed outside Shikki tsuitate Boshoku (Lacquer screen: Dusk) and signed Murata Yoshio saku (Made by Murata Yoshio), with a seal

Exhibited
Ninth Nitten Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Ueno Park, Tokyo, October 29–December 1, 1953

Published
Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai (Nittenshi Editorial Committee), Nittenshi 17 (History of the National Salon 17), Nitten hen 2 (The Nitten Exhibition 2), Tokyo, Nitten, 1987, pp. 466, 497 (no. 410)

Drawing on the rich and varied lacquer craft heritage of his native Takaoka (Toyama Prefecture), Murata Yoshio created this unusual composition featuring a river bed or a pebbly beach, its dry tones offset by two dragonflies executed in black and gold lacquer. A pupil of the noted lacquer artist and educator Yamazaki Kakutaro (1899–1984), also from Takaoka, Murata followed the example of his master in making use of new multicolored urushi (lacquer) techniques developed by Yamazaki after a formative overseas research trip in 1937–8. Like Yamazaki and many of his contemporaries, Murata favored pictorial formats such as folding screens and tsuitate screens (as here) over traditional vehicles for lacquer decoration such as boxes or tea caddies. His four submissions to the national Nitten exhibition, from 1952 to 1957, were all either panels or screens featuring artfully arranged masses of small elements: rocks, as here, or birds. Murata would go on to serve as a trustee of the Nitten and play an active part in the Gendai Kōgei Bijutsuka Kyōkai (Contemporary Arts and Crafts Association.)

In Japan, the dragonfly is symbolic of patriotism, courage, good fortune and happiness. It is often connected with the samurai class, for which Dragonflies symbolized agility, determinedness and victory.

The dragonfly has been used as a symbol in Japan all the way back to the origins of the country. In ancient texts Japan was often referred to as Akitsushima (Land of the Dragonflies). The legendary emperor Jinmu gave the country this name as the islands looked to him like two dragonflies, when viewed from the top of a mountain.

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Notes:	The original fitted box is signed by the artist
Origin:	Japan
Period:	1950-1979
Materials:	Colored lacquer on wood
Condition:	Good. Excellent condition
Creation Date:	1953
Styles / Movements:	Modern, Asian
Patterns:	Asian/Oriental, Handmade, Modern, Textured
Incollect Reference #:	733290

Dimensions

W.	35.83 in;	H.	34.84 in;	D.	11.02 in;
W.	91 cm;	H.	88.5 cm;	D.	28 cm;

Message from Seller:

Thomsen gallery, located in a townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, offers important Japanese paintings and works of art to collectors and museums worldwide. The gallery specializes in Japanese screens and scrolls; in early Japanese tea ceramics from the medieval through the Edo periods; in masterpieces of ikebana bamboo baskets; and in gold lacquer objects.