The Paintings of Tomoo Seki

When asked what artists are relevant to his recent paintings, Tomoo Seki responded by acknowledging the importance of early Cubist works by both George Braque and Pablo Picasso, the paintings of the Japanese painter Bakusen Tsuchida, Edvard Munch’s late landscapes and the work of Henri Matisse. Although each artist adopted their own unique visual language with regard to their respective approaches to painting, some interesting points of overlap nevertheless remain. These include but are not necessarily limited to an interest in vitalism with respect to foregrounding the individuality of the artist, the adoption of novel painterly techniques and finally, a growing emphasis on both technical and social radicalism, the former served, in part, by novel pictorial techniques whilst the latter encompassed, but was not necessarily limited to, the rejection of tradition.