Untitled 1995

Aki Kuroda made this painting using bold swathes of color and decisive marks. The whole thing is so direct, you can see the juicy strokes of paint laid down one after another. The colors are flat and vibrant, with a kind of childlike simplicity. The figure in the middle is like a Rorschach test, at once present and absent, solid and spectral. It divides the picture, but also binds it. That black line has such confidence. It’s not trying to be perfect, but it is totally committed. The material reality of the paint is laid bare: its surface, the way it sits on the canvas, all contribute to the emotional and conceptual force of the painting. Kuroda reminds me a little of someone like Matisse, with his confident shapes and high-key colors, but there's something rawer and more immediate here. It’s a painting that celebrates the joy of looking. It leaves you free to bring your own interpretations.