Minoru Inoue, Reiichi Noguchi (Head of Curatorial Group, Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum)　

December 3, 2016 (at the Minoru Inoue Exhibition)

This document is a transcript of a gallery talk held on December 3, 2016, at the Minoru Inoue solo exhibition. The event was a retrospective of Minoru Inoue′s painting history with commentary by Reiichi Noguchi, head of the curatorial group at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum.

　The content of the lecture touched not only on the artist′s inner thoughts and consciousness when creating his works, but also on external factors such as the times and society that influenced his work, providing insight into the art movements of the 1990s and the 1990s.

　In the late 80′s and early 90′s, so-called "painting" and "sculpture" were said to be outdated methods of expression, while "traditional" techniques of expression were thoroughly taught as a foundation for art school entrance examinations, and only then could free expression be persuasive. The theory seems to have been that only after one had mastered these "traditional" expressive techniques would one be able to express oneself freely and persuasively. However, there must have been potentially quite a few art students who, when they entered art school and tried to do what they liked, did not know what they should do or even what they wanted to express.

　In his 30-year career as an artist, Inoue has been exploring what is "inevitable" or, in other words, what is "realistic" for him, while moving back and forth among the diversifying means of expression. At a certain point, I returned to the time when I was still working on sketches for art school entrance exams, not to "make pictures" but to "draw things," but this is not a retrogression of the times or a return to the starting point. Rather, as Mr. Noguchi pointed out at the end of the talk, it can be said to have led to a new type of expression that overlaps with the current trend of what might be called "post-contemporary art," in which the "subject" of authorship has become less important.

|Meeting with Inoue′s works|

Noguchi: "I realized during our meeting that it was only recently that I clearly recognized the existence of an artist named Minoru Inoue. I have a small work here, and I have a nostalgic feeling because I know that this work was apparently the first one.

Strangely enough, I remember the work and the conversation I had with him at that time, and he told me about the paints and the canvas. He told me that it was quite difficult to do this kind of work with oil paints, even though it is a thinly painted work, and that he had to use good paints and a very good canvas. I remember thinking that he used some kind of unique technique to create this kind of style. Since then, I have been looking at his recent works, and I asked him if he would talk to me about them.

I had thought that I had seen his work before, but then I realized that I had actually seen his work long before that. My wife met him and his wife (Fumika) through a colleague at the museum where I used to work. Fumika-san is an illustrator, and one day she was drawing a recipe book called "Stacked Stew". My wife met Mr. Inoue through that book, and to my surprise, she bought his work, which was a very small one, about size 6 or 3, with a picture of a garland chrysanthemum and a shiitake mushroom. There was an episode in the painting, and I heard that he ate the rest of it after drawing it, but his style was completely different from today. The motifs are actually foodstuffs, even though they are grasses, and they don′t have this all-over look.

In the background where nothing is painted, there is a big line of garland chrysanthemum and shiitake mushrooms. I couldn′t make the connection because of the difference in style, but later, when my wife told me about it, I realized that it was the same artist. That was in 2006 or 2007, about 10 years ago. That is how I came to realize that the style of the work that you are now seeing in the exhibition hall is surprisingly recent. I am sure you will be able to hear more about the great transition and the struggles he went through to get to this point. I would like to hear his story slowly, as if I am gradually dissecting him.

|The gap between art school entrance exams and "contemporary art" in the 1990s|

Inoue: "First of all, this is a work I did when I entered Tokyo Zokei University in 1991 (1), when I had just started university. I was told that I was not allowed to paint, and we all shared that understanding, and the times moved on on their own. ......

(1) 1991 Oil on canvas 65.2 x 53.0cm

Noguchi: "That was a time when installations and such were all the rage."

Inoue: "I took an entrance exam for oil painting, so I was painting, but I didn′t know anything about installations, and I thought I was painting because I was a painter. I didn′t know anything about installation, and I thought I was going to paint pictures because I was a painter, but when I entered, I was told, "You can′t paint pictures, you have to have a concept," and I was told that very strongly. It′s like that, it has a logic to it. ......

Noguchi: "You may not know this, but there really was a time like that. I was in the theory department of Tokyo University of the Arts, and when I went to the graduation exhibition, there were no oil painters who were painting. Nowadays, times have changed, and all oil painters are now painting, but there was a time like that.

Inoue: "I was in my first year of college, and I painted mostly at home. That (1) is from that time. I had a yearning for abstract paintings, so when I finished the exam paintings for the entrance exam, I thought, ′Well, I′ll start painting,′ so I just did it for the time being."

Noguchi: "Did you feel like you could finally paint what you wanted?

Inoue: "Yes, that′s right. I really liked the abstract paintings of postwar European artists such as Dubuffet and Fortelier, and I loved the rich matière of their paints, so I did various kinds of paintings.

(2) 1992, mineral pigment on paper, 26.5 x 35.0cm

(3) 1994 Oil on canvas 38.0 x 45.5cm

Noguchi: "How many years was this?

Inoue: "I went there in July 1992 and stayed for about a year and a half until December 1993. I went there thinking that I was not allowed to draw pictures in Japan, but when I went there, I found that it was really true. I went to see the Venice Biennale, for example. I went to see the Venice Biennale, and there was a cow cut in half (Damien Hirst), and there were Nazi symbols, and they broke the whole floor.

Noguchi: "Hans Haake, right?

Inoue: "Yes, that′s right. The award ceremony and ......"

Noguchi: "That is quite famous ......

Inoue: "There was also Nam June Paik. I put it in the opening in the heat of the moment. I wrote Yayoi Kusama. And then, instead of a picture, there was a cow cut into pieces. It was an installation with dirty, dirty underwear, like a mess. Or a picture of a man′s face with sheep′s horns on it.

|New Painting, Wave of Formalism|

Inoue: "At that time, it seemed that things like gender were all the rage, and I wondered if that was really all there was to it, so I decided I had no choice but to return home, so I went back to Japan and came back to paint from scratch, or rather, from scratch. I still liked the matiere and so on. I came back to Hachioji at the end of 1993, and came back in 1994, and I didn′t know what to do. At that time, painting was all the rage in Japan. Every cat and mouse was doing 150-size paintings.

Noguchi: "That was when the so-called "new painting" boom took off in the 1990s.

Inoue: "If you think about it, when I went to a preparatory school for entrance examinations for the first time, all the students were painting F15s. I was like that, and they were drawing F150s. I was like, ′What the heck,′ but I didn′t know what to do, so I drew the 150 myself."

Noguchi: "At that time, I was painting quite large works. (4)"

(4) 1994 Oil on canvas 179×203cm

Inoue: "It′s still just a mess of matiere, and there′s nothing I can do about it. ......

Noguchi: "Painting that became popular in the 90′s was to depict mythology, to restore narrative, or to depict a specific figurative subject, so even if it was a large painting, it was probably a work that was different from those kinds of paintings.

Inoue: "As far as I know, formalism was a bit in vogue.

Noguchi: "Like Kazumi Nakamura.

Inoue: "After I went to France and came back, I was like Urashima Taro, and my friend told me that this kind of thing was popular now. I didn′t know how to do that kind of thing, so I was struggling with it. ...... This was in 1994. Next. Oh, that′s right.
That′s right. ...... And then, in 1994, I painted the big one I mentioned earlier, and there was really nothing inevitable about it, or I didn′t really get a response from within myself, and then another kind of criticism, contemporary criticism, was popular. I mean, my friend told me about this new trend and said, "Have you heard of ′Critique Space′? Do you know about ′Critique Space′?

Noguchi: "Or Okazaki Kenjiro?

Inoue: "He wrote some really difficult stuff and said, ′You have to read this.　　Audience: (laughter)

Noguchi: "It′s amazing that he tries just in case (laughs).

Inoue: "I′m not that good at understanding things linguistically, but it′s really difficult, isn′t it?

Noguchi: "It is difficult, yes.

Inoue: "It′s so difficult that I forget about it as soon as I get to the next line. I would buy it and read it. Then I thought, "A concept," and I thought, "I have to do it," and I did it, and had my first solo exhibition (5) in 1997. I didn′t know what to do. I had no basis for it, like painting in black and white and gray, but I didn′t know what to do. That′s why I′ve already started working on ......."

(5) Solo Exhibition April 7-12, 1997 Gallery Gen
Left: 1997, oil on canvas, 227.5×182cm
Right: 1996, oil on canvas, 211.5×170cm

Noguchi: "Do you mean that you painted with rules?

Inoue: "Yes, I did. I had nothing, so I just went into that state and painted this in red, blue, and green, and so on.

Noguchi: "Even so, it′s different from the monochrome style you had earlier, isn′t it? It is interesting that you say that you just set the rules and drew the pictures, but you don′t think about anything else.

Inoue: "Well, I got really tired of doing it, and the big pictures take up a lot of space, cost a lot of money, and the quality of the work is the same, so I got tired of it and quit. So, after a year of doing this, I decided to quit after drawing 94, 5, 6, and 7 large paintings. I thought it was no longer worth talking about.

Noguchi: "Was it partly because you were not satisfied with the quality of the work?

Inoue: "Yes, I wasn′t satisfied with the quality of the work, and what I was doing, how should I put it, I didn′t feel like I was painting my own pictures at all, or I was doing it blindly.

Noguchi: "It′s like I′m painting because I feel like I have to do something like this, isn′t it?"

|"Quotation", influence of pattern painting|

Inoue: "Ah, yes, well, the earlier one was just a squishy form itself, but I thought that was a little too much, so I thought I′d try something like ′quoting′ or ′citing′ something, which was popular at the time: ...... I thought that was a bit too much, so I decided to use something like ′citation′ or something like that. I didn′t show it on the slides, but after I went to France, I got a little homesick, I don′t know how to say it, and I got sick, so I didn′t draw any pictures for more than a year. I did not paint at all for more than a year. I painted only the first time (2), but I did not paint for the rest of the year. So I used to make sketches of fallen leaves, and I also used to make sketches of garlic, which I bought myself and ate, so I used to draw plants whenever I was in trouble, and that is how I came up with this arabesque pattern. (6)"

(6) 1997 Oil on carbon paper on canvas 65.2 x 53.0 cm

Noguchi: "Oh, it is an arabesque pattern, isn′t it? This was a time when "quotation" and pattern paintings were quite popular, wasn′t it?

Inoue: "Yes, I think I did it after hearing about such things.

Noguchi: "In the postmodern era, when people talked about the difficulty of creating something new, it was a common method of production to cite a pattern or a certain object and use it as the basis for creation.

Inoue: "This one on the left (7) is carbon paper.

(7) 1998 carbon paper on canvas 33.3 x 24.2cm

Noguchi: "Carbon paper?

Inoue: "Yes, there is a pattern on the carbon paper. It is not a quote, but a plant called pothos that I had in my house.
I have a houseplant called pothos that I used to have at home. It′s green, shaped like a spade, and it looks like this..."

Noguchi: "The shape of the leaves?

Inoue: "It has the same leaves. I happened to see it and thought, "Oh, this is good. I didn′t dare to make an arabesque pattern or anything like that, I just thought it was interesting, so I thought it would be okay. I just cut a piece of paper and pasted it again.

Noguchi: "I am not drawing this.

Inoue: "Yes, I just cut and pasted it. Actually, I was going to do some kind of collage with it, but it was a mess in my room, so I decided to clean it up when I went to bed, and it was interesting when I put it back together. I thought it would be nice to just put it back, so I turned it into a work of art. (8)"

Noguchi: "It was something that I put there somehow, and it became a work of art."

(8) 1998, paper on canvas, 33.3 x 24.2cm

|The fact that the kirigami works were well received made me uneasy.|

Inoue: "Yes, it looked like that. ...... So does this one. All of them are pothos. I cut paper and re-paste it. And I′m going to hold a solo exhibition with this. After the first exhibition, which was a complete waste of time and money. And I was accepted, you know, a little. They said something interesting about it. There are a certain number of people who like this kind of thing.

Noguchi: "What do you mean by this?

Inoue: "It′s white and suggestive or meaningful. I was really bothered by that, or rather, I got tired of it. I was afraid that I would look like a paper cut artist. I was scared, and after one exhibition, I had to leave immediately.

Noguchi: "So you became more anxious by accepting the exhibition?

Inoue: "Yes, that′s right. The next year, I had another solo exhibition (9 or 10) and returned to paints. I was no longer interested in being a paper cutout artist or a contemporary artist. I wanted to paint, so I thought it was a bad idea, so I went back to paints, but it still didn′t look good. ......

(9) 1999 年 油彩、キャンバス 33.3×24.2cm

(10) Solo exhibition April 12-17, 1999 at Gallery Gen

Noguchi: "The way you paint is similar to the way you did kirigami earlier.

Inoue: "Yes, the motif was exactly the same as that, so I just changed it to paint. This one, well, it was not accepted at all. ......

Noguchi: "This one was not accepted at all. That′s strange.

Inoue: "Nothing at all. But I was relieved that I was back to painting. Now I can move forward. ......

Noguchi: "Up to this point, that kind of ...... Noguchi: "Oh, things have changed a little bit. (11)"

(11) 1999 Oil on canvas 33.2 x 24.2cm

Inoue: "Yes, I tried to make the one that I painted on the surface a little stiffer when I had my next solo exhibition.

Noguchi: "Is the white outline of the outline left?

Inoue: "That′s right. I ended up working on a continuation of the paper cut-outs, so my work was the worst at this time. The more you do it, the worse it gets.

(12) 1998-9 Oil on canvas 33.3 x 24.2cm

Noguchi: "What do you mean by ′terrible′?

Inoue: "I think so when I look at it now, but I would never use colors or paint like this nowadays. I didn′t intend to do it this way. I wanted to do it in a more elegant way, but I don′t know how to do it. I don′t know. If I had refined the technique a little more, it would have looked a little more polished, but I didn′t know that, and I just painted it all over the place. And it just got tackier and tackier. In my image, it was more like Matisse′s paper cutouts, but what he was doing was totally different. It′s totally different from what I imagined. It′s like I′m making a lot of as