Inner Structure 1954

Kazuo Nakamura made this artwork, Inner Structure, with paint and a keen eye. Just imagine the painting emerging, stroke by stroke. It looks like the surface has been built up, maybe scraped back, like the layers of thought behind it. I can see him, in his studio, thinking, what if? What if I just keep going? There's a cool quality to the colors, these gentle greens and blues, that is making me feel calm. It's like he's captured the sky on a cloudy day, or maybe some deep water. And then those lines. They are scratched into the surface almost like architectural drawings. The paint is thin, but it carries so much history, of previous versions, of decisions made and unmade. That one gesture over there, like a little cross, that can communicate a feeling, an intention. It makes me think of Agnes Martin and her quiet grids, or maybe the early, searching lines of Brice Marden. We painters, we're always looking at each other, learning, stealing, and building on what came before, in an ongoing conversation. Painting is an ongoing process of figuring out how to express the unexpressable.