Hiromi Tanaka

The theme of Hiromi Tanaka′s works has been consistently named "view". "view" is an abstracted landscape. Tanaka, a mountaineering and skiing enthusiast, says, "The nature I experience, it is not just a visual experience, but a comprehensive experience of hearing, smell, and touch. When I put it into the visual form of perception of painting, I have to abstract the visual experience in order to fully depict it." Tanaka says. The world that Tanaka depicts is filled with a dignified and refreshing atmosphere.

Interview　June 2023

Shimazu: You majored in painting at Joshibi University of Art and Design, didn′t you?

Tanaka: Yes, from high school.

Shimazu: What was it that led you to pursue a career in art?

Tanaka: I don′t have a clear memory of "this," but I remember writing my dream for the future in my graduation album in the 6th grade or so. At that time, I had already written that I wanted to be a painter. But I think it started at a much younger age. I went to a kindergarten where there were lots of paints to draw with, or a clay tank to make things with clay. I went to a kindergarten where those kinds of things were popular. According to my parents, even before that, as long as I had a pencil and paper, I was a quiet child. So I guess I naturally liked it. I don′t know why I liked it or what made me like it, but I guess I always liked the idea of making something with my hands.

Shimazu: He must have liked it a lot, since he went to an art school in high school as well.

Tanaka: It wasn′t that I had anything else in particular that I wanted to do, and it might also be because my grandfather was an artist. When I applied to high schools, I chose only those with art departments. But I never went to study painting on my own. I don′t remember what kind of club activities there were in elementary school, but I never joined any kind of art club. I just did it on my own, or rather, I drew at home or in class.

Shimazu: I think there are various courses in art, but the reason you chose painting is because of ......

Tanaka: I don′t know what grade I was in high school, but I was divided between design and painting, and design is involved in commerce. I mentioned earlier that my grandfather was an artist, but he was an elementary school teacher who said, "Pictures are not for sale," so he never sold any of his paintings, but taught art classes. I think he did exhibit his works at art exhibitions in Saitama City, or Omiya City as it was then called, or something like that. Perhaps it was because I had heard such things, but for some reason I was under the impression that design was not the place where I could do what I wanted to do. Looking back, I don′t think that′s true. Besides, I′m not that good at interacting with people. ...... design requires involvement with many people, and I was the kind of kid who didn′t have any friends, so when I thought of something I could do quietly by myself, it was painting. So, painting was the only thing I could do by myself. I ran away from a lot of things and ended up here (laughs).

Shimazu: Is that so? Surprisingly, you did not actively choose this place, but arrived here through a process of elimination (laughs).

Tanaka: I feel that way.

Shimazu: I see. So you went on to graduate school?

Tanaka: Yes. When I was an undergraduate at the university, I was a bit of a skier (laughs). When I entered high school, I saw my sister join the ski club and compete in ski tournaments, and I envied her, so I wanted to compete in ski tournaments too. I joined a ski club when I entered university, and I spent all winter living in the mountains. I spent about three months not creating anything. Then I thought to myself, "I′ve come all the way to art school," and reflected on my life. I decided to go to graduate school and make serious works. Not only that, but in our time, and I don′t mean to lump all of us together, but I wasn′t thinking about getting a job, I wanted to keep painting, and I didn′t pay for the tuition myself, but I thought it was to pay for the space and location for production.

That′s how I went to school the most during graduate school. I was in school all the time. There are kids who don′t come to school, right? When those kids didn′t show up, I expanded my space more and more and invaded the space of the kids who weren′t there, and I created a lot in a spacious environment.

Shimazu: Did you think about getting a job after that?

Tanaka: I had a vague idea that I would probably continue to paint while working part-time after I graduated from graduate school.

Shimazu: What did you find good about skiing?

Tanaka: I had been skiing since I was a child. My parents took me skiing when I was little, like when I was 3 or 4 years old, and I didn′t want to go. It was cold, and I didn′t want to wear the tight-fitting high-necked ones that I had to wear at the time because they were so painful. But I kept going, even though I didn′t want to, and one day I started to enjoy it. I think that′s part of the reason why I paint snowy landscapes. If I had lived in or been born in a snow country, I might have hated snow. Well, the best of both worlds. When I was in the upper grades of elementary school, resort condominiums were being built in Yuzawa and other areas, and they were being developed rapidly, and my parents joined the trend and bought a resort condominium. When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, I was living in Omiya, Saitama. I went to cram school on Saturdays in Omiya, and after cram school, I would go to Omiya station, take the last bullet train to Yuzawa, and then my parents would pick me up in Yuzawa and we would ski the next day.

Recently, I thought that being able to go to a different world as soon as I saw a painting might be a little like my life back then. It′s like you can′t go there, but you feel like you′ve been there. ......I have recently been thinking that I would like to offer something like that here (in the form of paintings).

Shimazu: Are snow-covered mountains beautiful?

Tanaka: Ski resorts are not so beautiful. When I was a member of the ski club, I was not interested in snow-covered mountains, but sometimes I saw beautiful scenery when I went skiing early in the morning. More than that, my husband has always been a mountain climber, and now he gets to do things that take him off the slopes. When I do that, I encounter very beautiful scenery.

Shimazu: Ah, I hear that a lot these days,

Tanaka: Backcountry.

Shimazu: Yes, yes, that. That kind of thing?

Tanaka: Yes, that kind of thing.

Shimazu: Sounds like a good idea. When you are skiing, don′t you think much about "I′m going to paint this view" or something like that?

Tanaka: I don′t think about that. Rather than saying, "I′m going to paint this scenery," I just want to paint the atmosphere of the place. When I see a pure white landscape with snow piled up all over it and no one has set foot on it, I feel a different atmosphere. It′s cold, but it doesn′t feel cold. The sounds also sound different. I try to depict the air and atmosphere rather than the scenery itself.

For example, a field covered with pure white snow may look empty, or a tree covered with snow may look dead, but when the snow melts and the tree gradually turns green, I realize that even though the field was so white, there is actually life living inside it. I think. I hope to depict things that exist beyond the visual sense, things that are invisible to the eye.

Shimazu: Do you remember any teachers, words, or artists who influenced you when you were at Joshibi, or anything they told you?

Tanaka: At the time, painting ...... I thought that painting was something that had to express the dark and dirty side of human beings, and that a bright painting was not quite the same thing.

Shimazu: That′s right. In my late teens and early twenties, I also liked to watch heavy films like "The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Tanaka: I used to force myself to mix colors and try my best to paint only with dull, low toned or grayish colors,

Shimazu: Like Rey Camoy′s paintings ......

Tanaka: Yes, yes. So I wasn′t sure if there was something in particular I wanted to express or not, but I wanted to say something like "presence," and I was trying my best to do it that way, and then my teacher, or professor, or someone who saw my work said to me, "Your painting has no venom," and I was like, "Hmm? I worked soooo hard on this!"

Shimazu: You worked really hard, but there was no poison in it at all (laughs).

Tanaka: I worked really hard (laughs), but I came to realize that if I was told that I had done so much, then I wasn′t going in this direction anymore. It was pointless to go to all the trouble of trying to make something that wasn′t there, and I decided I′d had enough of it. I like beautiful colors and refreshing things, and I′d rather have something to hang in my house that makes me feel good! I thought to myself. At that time, I came across a very beautiful yellow oil paint made by an overseas manufacturer, and I thought it would be good if I could make this beautiful yellow color come out beautifully. That was when I was making my graduate school graduation works

I had already decided to finish the graduation works by summer and have a solo exhibition in March, so I finished the graduation works in the summer for the solo exhibition in March, and then I changed my work completely and created the work for the solo exhibition. So, my graduation works was a dull, indistinct work, but after that, it suddenly changed to a beautiful yellow painting, and here we are today.

Shimazu: You were making tar-ish colored works until about six months before you finished graduate school.

Tanaka: I was making it, making it. I don′t know what I wanted to do, and I was desperate to make it sludgy anyway (laughs). But in the end, it wasn′t really a sludge.  I thought that′s what you mean by "not enough" (laughs).

Shimazu: Then people who knew your previous painting pretty much said, "Huh? That′s totally different"?

Tanaka: Oh, yes, but everyone says they are happy with the new style.

Shimazu: I wonder if the people around me can somehow understand a work that I have created without any real sense of inevitability within me.

Tanaka:Then I could say something like, "This is the kind of picture I want to paint," if not "This is what I want to say now! Until then, I didn′t know what to say. But at least I have a feeling that I want to paint, so I have to paint something. It′s a bit confusing, isn′t it? It′s like, I don′t have anything to draw, but I want to draw, and college students have that kind of confusing feeling. I think it′s the same for most people.

Shimazu: Ah, you mean that you enter an art college, but then you wonder, "What do I want to do?"

Tanaka: Yes. In the beginning, you had a motif, and you were painting it. Suddenly, that motif disappears, and then,

Shimazu: What should I draw, I wonder?

Tanaka: Even so, I did everything I could think of, but I never got any recognition. ......

Shimazu: I try to do what is popular at the time, but I don′ really feel it, or maybe I feel like I′m just following the surface.

Tanaka: Yes, yes. But in the end, I am just putting out what I have experienced, seen, and felt, and what I have accumulated. Maybe. When I have been a bit busy lately and haven′t been to the mountains, I gradually feel like, "Oh, I can′t paint," and I say, "I′m going, I′m going, I′m going, I′m going. If I live only in the city, I lose all motivation to create, and if I don′t regularly go to places where there is nature, even if it′s not the snowy mountains, I lose the ability to paint.

Shimazu: I thought that production was something artificial, and that I couldn′t do it in nature.

Tanaka: That′s right. I mean, I love nature, but the things I use (in production) are bad for my health, and I think they are very bad for my body and the environment. I′ve been thinking lately that I′m contradicting myself, but on the contrary, I think I′m making a lot of garbage, things that will become garbage when I die. ......

Shimazu: But you know, I think an artist has to be aware of that. It′s a kind of humility. I think it is a very honest sense, a very honest sense for an artist. It is important to be aware of this and still create.

Tanaka: Most of my works have been titled "view" since I started painting in graduate school, but when my father was hospitalized, he had my painting displayed in his hospital room. Then  he said, "It′s nice to look at them forever." I thought it would be nice to have a painting that I could look at forever. Though a stimulating one might be nice, too.

Shimazu: Yes, it′s nice to have a quick glance and be nice, but always be together,

Tanaka: Yes, I think it′s good to have something that is not too much of a distraction from daily life.

Shimazu: I don′t mean that I have a style once decided and repeat it, but rather that I can′t create unless I breathe in the mountain air. ......

Tanaka: After all, you can′t output without input.

Shimazu: That is very important. That is very important when painting or creating. If you decide on a style and repeat it over and over again, the viewer gets bored. It′s like this again. I once went to see a major Mondrian retrospective. Mondrian′s work has always been in grid lines, yellow, blue, and red since a certain period, and because it was a major retrospective, there were so many of these in a row (laughs). But I never got tired of it. I could look at each piece with a fresh feeling. And he is also making some adjustments to the length of the grid lines. I wonder what the difference is between this line that extends one centimeter and the one that doesn′t. Well, in his mind, it is clearly visible, and I thought he was drawing it correctly.

Tanaka: It is good to be able to see that in person. You can′t see that in print.

Shimazu: That′s right.

Tanaka: It′s interesting to see how he did it properly, or rather, how he paid attention to these points.

Shimazu: Yes, that′s interesting. I wonder if the artist′s sense of reality, or rather, his sense of reality, or rather, his sense of reality, is reflected in his paintings.

Tanaka: Well, I hope so. I hope you can feel the comfortable atmosphere that I have breathed through my works.

Shimazu: That may be a job that only a painter can do. I was told by a sculptor that he creates both 50-centimeter and 3-meter human sculptures, but they must look like natural-sized human beings when viewed. It should not look like a 50-centimeter person; it should not look like a 3-meter person.

Tanaka: Really?

Shimazu: Make it look like the natural size of a human body. And that is what he meant by abstraction.

Tanaka: Wow, interesting.

Shimazu: What I thought was, perhaps, if you look at a beautiful natural scene and draw it as it is, it may not be conveyed to the viewer. It becomes like a trivialized nature. I thought that the abstraction would convey the actual nature that Mr. Tanaka saw.

Tanaka: Oh, I see. If I put it into words, I am sure it does. Oh, I see, I guess that′s how it is. I don′t want to depict the scenery, I want to depict the atmosphere. 

I think it′s not good if I don′t actually see it (when I paint), so I get shapes and colors from things that are actually there as a starting point. Well, not all of them are like that, but I do a lot of them that way.

Shimazu: Please tell us about the title 《view》.

Tanaka: The purpose of a painting itself is to be displayed in a house or building, but I named it "view" in the hope that when it is displayed there, the atmosphere of the place will change a little or it will become a comfortable place.

At one time, I painted flowers and plants, but I still labeled them "view." I thought, "That′s not a view!" (Laughs.) But I think it′s OK to say that I am "looking at" them. No, I didn′t want people to think of it as a flower. I hope that when people see it, they will think of it as a view with flowers. I can′t explain it very well.

Shimazu: I don′t remember who the Montparnasse artist was, but I heard that he painted landscapes while looking at nudes.

Tanaka: It could have been anything, it was just a starting point to create a comfortable space. But if I didn′t get a shape from something, it would end up being the same thing, so I got shapes from plants and various other things, but sometimes it was a person, come to think of it.

Shimazu: Could you tell us about your techniques? Do you also use craft-like techniques*?

(* A technique in which several colors of paint are heaped up and scraped off to the level of the support. A marble-like pattern is created. It is similar to the maki-e technique.)

Tanaka: It′s more like a craft, but my parents used to run a factory, and I used to help out there as a part-time worker. There was a gray transformer on top of a telegraph pole, which is not so common now, and we had to repaint it, replace the parts attached to it, and remove rust and paint it in order to reuse it. It was very physical labor. That′s why I used a sander. Then, while I was doing oil paintings, I felt like sanding a little bit. My hands just wanted to do it (laughs).

Shimazu: Want to polish a slightly bumpy spot with all your gusto?

Tanaka: People talk about making art as addition and subtraction work, but oil painting is basically created by the addition process of applying oil paint. But I also wanted to include subtraction work in it.

Works in which the brush strokes and other details are clearly visible and you can see how the hand moved are also good, but on the other hand, I wanted to do works in which the viewer can see "How do you get it to look like this?"

Shimazu: Ah, I see.

Tanaka: So, I was a bit fascinated by woodblock prints