Poem No. 23: Fish 1954

Koshiro Onchi made Poem No. 23: Fish with what looks like watercolor and ink, and maybe some collage. I imagine him hunched over this piece of paper. Did he already know there would be a fish? The blue outline suggests a form, and the red gestures inside create a feeling of floating around. The inky blue slash reads like fins. Then the single eye, like a dark portal! I know this place, where a painting feels its way into being. Onchi was a Japanese artist interested in blending traditional printmaking with abstract art. What I love about his work is how it looks both carefully planned and totally accidental. It reminds me of Miro or Klee, but it has its own quirky spirit. What can we call this, abstract surrealism? So good.