北脇昇

Born in Nagoya-shi, Aichi in 1901. In 1910, Kitawaki moved to Kyoto to live with his uncle Hirose Mitsumasa, a businessman, and was based in Kyoto from then on. After dropping out of Dōshisha Jinjō Chugakkō (Dōshisha Junior High School), he studied painting under Kanokogi Takeshirō from 1919 to 1921. He then moved away from painting for a while, but in 1930, entered Tsuda Seifū’s private art school, and his work was accepted at the 19th Nika Art Exhibition for the first time in 1932. However, Tsuda’s art school was closed down in 1933 as Tsuda was arrested on suspicion of having harbored the Marxist Kawakami Hajime. Consequently, Kitawaki and his friends organized the Kyoto Research Institute of Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyōkai (Independent Art Association), welcoming Suda Kunitarō as their new teacher. Kitawaki submitted his works to the Dokuritsu Exhibition from its 4th exhibition. He also formed another association for “yōga” (Western-style painting) artists, Shin Nihon Yōga Kyōkai (New Japan Western-Style Painting Association), together with other members of the research institute. From around the end of 1936, Kitawaki became interested in Surrealism. In paintings such as “Spikenards” (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), which was submitted to the 7th Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyōkai Exhibition in 1937, and “Airport”（The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo）, which was submitted to the 3rd Shin Nihon Yōga Kyōkai Exhibition, he attracted attention by depicting unique visionary scenes in which commonplace plants were likened to something else. (In the case of “Spikenards,” “udo” [spikenards] are likened to people, and in “Airport,” maple tree seed pods are likened to airplanes.) At the latter exhibition, together with fellow members of the association, Kitawaki also experimented with a unique collaboration of fourteen works entitled “The Tale of Urashima Taro” (Kyoto City Museum of Art), in which Surrealist “exquisite corpse” (a method in which drawings by several people are combined, without knowing what the others have drawn, into an unexpected image) and Japanese linked verse were combined. (However, this differed from “exquisite corpse” in that Kitawaki prepared a detailed “plan” of the overall composition beforehand.) A representative example of such works demonstrating a visionary tendency would be “For a Sleepless Night” (Kyoto City Museum of Art), which won the Mayor’s Prize at the Art Exhibition (Shiten) sponsored by the city of Kyoto in 1938. In 1938, together with Komaki Gentarō, a friend from the Kyoto Research Institute of Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyōkai, Kitawaki took part in founding Sōki Bijutsu Kyōkai (Sōki Art Association) and submitted a series of “double images” entitled “Series of Physiognomy,” in which, combined with motifs taken from nature, human heads surfaced, to that association’s exhibition. Some of them do look humorous, but in the background of Kitawaki’s quest lay an interest in exploring the law-like nature lurking in the depths of the chaotic society. Based on such an interest, Kitawaki gradually extended his pursuit to Goethe’s natural science, particularly Goethe’s treatise on color and plant morphology. Kitawaki’s painterly style also evolved into not simply visionary works but a unique style depicting concrete images and explanations of their relationships employing geometrical figures and color planes. Representative examples are “Structure of the Meaning (A+B)2” (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) and “Structure of Phenomenon of Fashion” (Kyoto City Museum of Art), both of which were submitted to the 1st Bijutsu Bunka Art Exhibition held in 1940. Bijutsu Bunka Art Association was a group formed by avant-garde artists centered around Fukuzawa Ichirō, who had withdrawn from Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyōkai. Following the spread of war, Bijutsu Bunka Art Association met with suppression, and in April 1941, Fukuzawa and Takiguchi Shūzō, an art critic who was the theoretical prop of the association, were arrested. Immediately after this arrest, Bijutsu Bunka Art Association held its second exhibition, at which Kitawaki presented works incorporating, in addition to Goethe’s natural science, Oriental divination. This has conventionally been regarded as a return to the Orient in response to the state of affairs. However, bearing in mind that “I Ching (The Book of Changes)” was originally an attempt to capture the changes of phenomena by observing nature and understand them in a systematic manner, Kitawaki may have been trying to produce an entirely new expression which would integrate and schematize natural science of the East and the West. For example, in the series “Diagram of Chau Divination” (1941, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto City Museum of Art), the bagua (eight signs of divination) are depicted as six-tiered color strips. “Yang” is represented in warm colors (red, orange, and yellow), and “yin” in cold colors (green, blue, and purple). While the way the coloring is divided is based on Goethe’s treatise on color, the “I Ching” idea that it is the cycle of yin and yang that brings order to the world is also schematized. (The division of colors is not simply a linear matrix decomposition, but is represented as a color wheel connecting the red of the warm colors to the purple of the cold colors.) Such schematization of an idea cannot be found anywhere else in the world during this period, and it is the foremost representation of Kitawaki’s individuality. However, as the war raged on, Kitawaki’s pursuits came to a standstill, and by the end of the war, he receded from painting for a while. After World War II, in 1946, Kitawaki took part in Nihon Bijutsukai, a group seeking democratization of the art circles. In 1947, he also joined the Japan Avant-Garde Artists Club and actively promoted public awareness of avant-garde art. However, having contracted tuberculosis from overwork, he died prematurely aged fifty in 1951. “Quo Vadis” (1949, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), the last oil painting he presented, portrays a man seen from behind carrying a bag on his back with a book tucked under his arm. He appears to be at a loss, not knowing whether to proceed to the right or to the left. Looking into the distance, at the right of the canvas lies a town being hit by a storm, and at the left, people holding red flags are marching. These depictions are designed to make the viewers, too, give thought to which way to proceed in the postwar era. This can be regarded as a style of painting devised to make schematization, which Kitawaki worked on intently during the war, more accessible to the general public. As it suggests further development of this artist’s style, it is a shame that Kitawaki met an untimely death. After Kitawaki’s death, his wife donated many works to the National Museum of Modern Art (present-day National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) and some major works to Kyoto City Museum of Art. At the National Museum of Modern Art, major works by Kitawaki were introduced in an exhibition featuring four artists, which was held in 1958. A major retrospective was organized at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1997 (which then traveled on to the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art). A detailed critical biography has been written by Nakamura Giichi (“Nihon no zen’ei kaiga, sono hankō to zasetu—K no baai” [Avant-garde painting in Japan, resistance and breakdown—K’s case], Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1968). On the international stage, a substantial number of works were introduced in an exhibition entitled “Japon des avant gardes 1910–1970” (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1986), which attracted considerable attention. (Ōtani Shōgo / Translated by Ogawa Kikuko) (Published online: 2026-04-06)