Tomie Ohtake

TOMIE OHTAKE (Kyoto, 1913 - São Paulo, 2015).
Untitled.
Oil on canvas.
Attached technical sheet from Dan Gallery (Brazil) and document stamped by the Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage.
Provenance: Dan Gallery (Brazil).
Measurements: 37 x 30 cm; 38 x 31 cm (frame).
This painting by Tomie Ohtake shows the affinity between lyrical and sensorial abstraction, a trait that consecrated the artist as one of the most influential artists of 20th century Brazilian art. The encounter between a deep blue, almost atmospheric, and a vibrant red configures a composition of great visual strength, where the chromatic planes are superimposed with dense texture and subtle crackles that reveal gesture and matter, essential elements in her plastic language in which she mixes Japanese sensibility with Western modernism.
A language where color plays a central role in intense reds, yellows, blues and greens that evoke both nature and indigenous Brazilian roots as well as the cultural dynamism of his native country.
Ohtake became an absolutely singular figure within Latin American abstraction. Of Japanese origin and established in São Paulo since 1936, Tomie Ohtake developed a career that spanned more than six decades, participating in five editions of the São Paulo Biennial and exhibiting in institutions of international reference such as the Metropolitan Museum, the Sa Francisco Museum of Modern Art or the Tate. His production transcended painting to expand into the urban space with large-scale public sculptures, consolidating an artistic presence that today is part of the Brazilian cultural landscape. Her legacy, preserved and disseminated by the Tomie Ohtake Institute, reinforces the historical value of works such as this one, where the artist's stylistic maturity is clearly perceived.