Mask 1975

This is Taro Okamoto’s ‘Mask’, painted with bold, vibrant colours and strong lines. Just imagine Okamoto, paintbrush in hand, circling the canvas, maybe with a sake in the other hand. It’s a real knockout. I feel like Okamoto is asking us to consider what it means to ‘see’. What does the mask see? What does it hide? The colour is just amazing. Look at how he lays down those blocks of pure colour, then lets them bleed into each other. It’s a real dance between control and chaos. The thick black outline of the eye draws you in, but then your eyes dart around the rest of the canvas, trying to make sense of it. It’s kind of amazing how artists like Okamoto can take something as simple as paint and canvas and turn it into a whole world of feeling and sensation. Artists are always in conversation with each other, riffing on ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. We’re all just trying to figure out what it means to be human, one brushstroke at a time.