Inner View #3 1955

Kazuo Nakamura made this painting, Inner View #3, using black lines over a golden background. Just imagine Nakamura in front of the canvas, maybe wrestling with an idea, each stroke a physical act, a thought made visible. I wonder if he was thinking about Mondrian or maybe even Sol LeWitt, but taking it somewhere else entirely. The paint looks kind of thin, not too fussy, but the lines are so decisive, like each one had to be exactly where it landed. It’s like a map or a blueprint of an idea. Look at how some of these black lines hover, they don’t quite connect, and I can feel a bit of tension and release there. The making of a painting can be such an intimate space of inquiry, a place where we don't just represent the world but also question it. Artists are in an ongoing exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity.