Blooming Flowers in the land of fire
―Contemporary bijinga by Monda Nana
It’s famous that Takehisa Yumeji’s bijinga is influenced by Shanghai Artist Fengzikai. He has made great achievements in the field of design and binding. He made a good balance between bijinga and design. He is an important creator in the history of Japanese design.
In the world of Japanese bijinga, Itou Sinsui, Kaburaki kiyokata, Uemura Syoen are always remembered.
National Art Museum is holding the 50th anniversary of Kaburaki Kiyokata’s death exhibition, Totally 109 paintings are being exhibited， including three artworks “Shintomi Town”(1930), “Hamacho River Bank” (1930) and “Tsukiji Akashi Town” (1927).
So, is Monda Nana’s figure painting bijinga? Her works can be a kind of contemporary bijinga that implies conservative, serious, stubborn and introverted. There is traditional blank space in her painting，but the background it is not classical，she like to put the flowers, birds and the moon.Thouse beauty in her painting has long neck and resolute eyes, gorgeous flowers around the head. Since she moved to Kumamoto, the land of fire naturally inspired her, the seemingly fragile but powerful vitality of contemporary women is nakedly displayed.
Me and Monda met at the group exhibition of Artist Group C-DEPO in Shanghai more than 10 years ago. This spring I met her again at Kumamoto, the fate of the fate made us connected again. Although I proposed to hold her solo exhibition in Shanghai , strange changes began to occur in Shanghai this March. The gallery had to close from March 16th .We switched the exhibition to Tokyo space.
Shanghai has been locktown since April 1, and it is unclear when it will be end. Now if one person got COVID the entire apartment will be taken into quarantine, How unreasonable this is, I can’t understand.
What kind of power can you feel in the awe-inspiring female figures in Monda’s works? I missed Tokyo in early summer and lost the whole spring in Shanghai. But I got healed from Monda Nana’s works.
