Masaru Shichinohe

Acrylic on board
30 x 30 cm. 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.
Signed in English “Mararu” on lower right；dated "2006.6.4" and signed in English “Masaru Shichinohe” on the reverse
Literature：Parol-sha Publishing,Tokyo,Japan,Hako-Shonen：Masaru Shichinohe,2002,unpaged.
Provenance：Private Collection,Japan.
Note：This work is accompanied with frame hand made by the artist.
Masaru Shichinohe
Unlike the “kawaii” and “superflat” aesthetics prevailing in Japan,Masaru Shichinohe’s oeuvres are impacted by the artist’s fascination with religious alter pieces from the mid-century Western world and Taruho Inagaki’s fantasy fiction. With fine classical techniques and modeling capabilities,the artist weaves into his art scientific principles such as gravity,optics as well as occultism,creating a unique style that follows neither
“An aura with a mineral-like texture,dreamlike sense of emptiness and nostalgia” underpins Shichinohe’s oeuvres. Thanks to the artist’s meticulousness,his early works are generally small in scale. He works mainly with wood panels and acrylic paint. The artist also often frames his own works. Of the three art pieces in this auction,such is the case with Sphere Club and Devoured by the Box.
In the bottom right foreground of Sphere Club（2002）,a boy in a yellow top stands with his back to the viewer,whose view is directed by the boy’s positioning towards a red sphere suspended by a thread and swaying in pendulum motion. The red sphere pops out against a simple and light background of sky and ground. Pendulum and vertical motions have long been inspirations to Shichinohe’s artistic pursuit. Between 1990s and 2009,he created a number of works around this theme. But Sphere Club,unlike his two earlier creations that focus on the physics equation of pendulum motion,or a later one in 2009 that has a girl on the left,directs its viewer’s attention to the motion of the sphere i