Contemporary music expressed through painting

YUGEN Gallery opened in February 2022. Masahito Hiranuma held its first exhibition, "#punk #rock #art #life," together with Yoko Ayukawa.

Unlike the previous exhibition, which featured works depicting women dressed in decadent fashion with glittering makeup and underground rock divas, this exhibition, "CONTEMPORARY MUSIC," will be comprised entirely of abstract paintings. Hiranuma will be showcasing 14 pieces, including two new works from a series he has been working on since the 2010s.

After working as an assistant to Yamamoto Kansai's Paris and Tokyo collections, selecting music and directing, Hiranuma moved to Paris, France in 1990 to experience "real" art and begin his career as an artist.

At the time, he was a frequent visitor to the Louvre Museum, where he observed the use of painting materials and undercoats in historical works that were in the process of restoration that were "lying nearby." He also traveled to Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and other countries, coming into contact with art that stands tall on Europe's solemn history, and built up his own methodology of painting.

Evocative Abstract Paintings

Among the many originals he saw, such as the Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica, he was particularly overwhelmed by Willem de Kooning. He was so impressed by this artist, one of the leading figures in the postwar Abstract Expressionism movement that arose in New York, that he said he was "told to give up painting." Hiranuma's strokes and rich colors convey emotion and hand movements. You can see a glimpse of the light that de Kooning shone upon her in her works, which depict the inner conflicts and joys of women.

While creating abstract representational works, Hiranuma began working on his geometric series, which are composed of organically arranged colors. He started out by drawing sketches to consider the composition of the painting, but as he continued to "play" with the colors, his brushwork evolved from emotive to logical, self-restrained abstract expressionism.

"This is a series I started drawing at a time when I was listening to a lot of contemporary music, such as Steve Reich and Brian Eno, and I wanted to depict the sounds of discomfort and harmony that exist in contemporary music as I felt them with my ears."

Music envelops us with vibrations like sunlight and speaks to us. Feeling the colors and shapes that appear in these vibrations, Hiranuma creates contemporary music as paintings. He layers the colors and adjusts them until he can "feel the vibrations of light." The painting, where warm colors and shapes collide and harmonize, evokes deep emotions and sensations in the viewer, just like music.

The beginning of a shining journey into self-discovery

"We live in an age where there are countless artists with incredible skills and the freedom to choose from a wide variety of subjects and techniques. It doesn't matter if it's abstract or concrete, painting or sculpture, or any combination of the two. What do you choose from among all that? Once you've set aside concepts and notions, you can carefully pick out what you want."

"Painting is similar to cooking. When I fry onions, I focus on the ingredients themselves, striving for a delicious taste. I lose myself in painting the colors beautifully, and just like when I was a child, I play around, wondering what colors will appear."

Hiranuma is attracted to paintings because "the brilliance and light I receive from the painting remains in my mind as a pure joy for myself." He declares that he has no interest in works that do not bring joy, and says that now, in an age when modern art is overflowing with concepts, he wants to focus on the fundamental joy of human beings.

Masahito Hiranuma, who has been painting for over 30 years, has created a minimalist work with few colors, "ENCOUNTER", which will also be shown in this exhibition, and it seems that he is about to be reborn as a painter. The colors and lines are in harmony, and the light emitted from the screen becomes a symphony that envelops us and resonates.