Flying Crane 1957

Tadashi Nakayama made this print, called 'Flying Crane', sometime around the late fifties. There’s a kind of ghostly presence in this image, isn't there? That ochre color is all earth and substance, laid down in a flurry, while the dark lines scratch and dart across the surface. You can see the crane taking shape, not in detail, but in essence, a symbol rendered in ink and feeling. I wonder, was he thinking of ancient scrolls or the fleeting beauty of nature itself when he made it? Those sweeping brushstrokes, they tell a story of movement and energy! They remind me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, but with an Eastern sensibility. It’s like the artist is in conversation with both tradition and his own impulses, right there on the paper. He’s leaving space for the form to emerge, not from representation but from the act of painting itself. Beautiful.