Masao Tsuruoka “Table”

Author birth and death: 1907 Takasaki (Gunma) - 1979 Tokyo
Year of production: 1960s
Technique Material: pastel, paper
Dimensions: 27.0 x 38.0 cm
Signature: Signed bottom right "M. Tsuruoka"

Exhibition history: "Techniques on Paper: Ishii Collection, University of Tsukuba" January 2012th - February 1th, 7 Musashino City Kichijoji Museum of Art cat. 2.

Literature: Edited by Rintaro Terakado, “Ishii Collection I. Paintings in the University of Tsukuba,” University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Art, 2011, cat. 33.

Collection number: 2010-JD-IS002

Work description:
A plate with a spoon still in it and an egg are placed on the dining table at the bottom of the screen, while multicolored abstract shapes float on a white background at the top of the screen.Regarding the latter, a similar depiction can be seen in ``Night of the Mask'', which was exhibited at the ``Masao Tsuruoka Pastel Exhibition'' (1979), a solo exhibition at Fuma Gallery in Ginza, which collected many pastel paintings from the same period.Tsuruoka created dynamic oil paintings even before the war.After the war, he produced works that were heavy and dark, such as his masterpiece, Heavy Hand (1949), but in the late 1960s, his lightness returned.Tsuruoka concentrated on pastel paintings like this work in the 1960s and held several solo exhibitions of them, and it is highly likely that this work was exhibited at one of them. A pastel painting with the theme of ``the dining table'' is ``People at the Dining Table,'' which was exhibited at the ``Masao Tsuruoka Exhibition'' (Daimaru, Tokyo) in September 1962, and is currently in the collection of the Gunma Museum of Modern Art. However, this is different from the "dining table" in this work in terms of its motif.