- Accompanies the exhibition Carte blanche Toshimasa Kikuchi held at
the Guimet Museum, Paris, from 7 July to 4 October 2021 - Abstract forms
of a virtuosity and craftsmanship seldom found in contemporary art
magnificently photographed by the Japanese photographer Tadayuki
Minamoto - Features photographs and paintings by Man Ray of mathematical
models - Also features photographs by Bertrand Michau of fascinating
mathematical objects from the Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris The work of
the Japanese sculptor Toshimasa Kikuchi (born in 1979) is somehow
bewilderingly obvious. Trained in the restoration of Buddhist statues,
mastering to perfection the techniques of classical Japanese statuary,
he carves pure forms in wood - geometric, hydrodynamic or figurative.
His scientific repertory is timeless (mathematics, engineering, natural
history), but his preferred materials and techniques are firmly grounded
in tradition (Japanese hinoki cypress, urushi lacquer, kinpaku gold
leaf). The installation he presents for his Carte Blanche at the Guimet
Museum, Paris, brings together a series of slender sculptures in
lacquered wood of mathematical objects, in the tradition of the
celebrated photographs that Man Ray took of them. These abstract forms,
hanging from the ceiling like mobiles or laid on the floor like
devotional objects, take shape through a virtuosity and craftsmanship
seldom found in contemporary art. The book is lavishly illustrated by
the Japanese photographer Tadayuki Minamoto, who has been able to
capture the magnificence of the mathematical abstraction of the works of
Kikuchi; by photographs and paintings by Man Ray; and with fascinating
mathematical objects from the Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris,
photographed by the French photographer Bertrand Michau. It is essential
reading for lovers of surrealism and of the early years of 20th-century
abstraction as well as for all who are intrigued by the close
relationship between art and mathematics. Text in English and French.
