Twee meerkoeten tussen riet 1900 - 1910

Okuhara Seiko made this print of two coots in the reeds with ink and colour on paper, but it’s the colour that really grabs me. It’s more like a feeling of colour. That grey, for me, is really a kind of blue. Look at the way the grey flattens the space, pushing the birds and reeds right up against us. It makes me think about the physicality of the artwork. The coots are solid, rendered with a soft, almost blurred edge which keeps them heavy. But then the reeds are sharp, almost like lines scratched into the surface of the grey wash. It reminds me a bit of Twombly, the way he lets the background hold the image. The inky dark silhouettes of the coots suggest the influence of earlier artists such as Hokusai but Seiko seems to be part of a new conversation. I like the idea of art as a kind of ongoing dialogue.