Ando Masako

Ando Masako is a Japanese artist whom I know nothing about, except that she is a she.  She has no website, and details on here life are scant.  She is Japanese, and has exhibited at the Tomio Koyama gallery in Japan and the White Cube Gallery in London.

I happened to run across her work while looking into the work of another Japanese artist, Tomoo Gokita.  Apparently they both participated in a group exhibition.

But it was this painting in particular--Sphinx--from 2007, that really had me impressed and got me interested in Masako.  This painting is flawless.  The composition has everything, and nothing more; every detail is necessary and does something for the work as a whole.  It reads easily, balancing a mix airy color planes seen in the background and tablecloth and the darker, detailed intricacies of the hands and the cactus.  The painting has strong clean lines that delicately flatten and extrude different parts of the image, respectively.  The colors are a nice balance of clear, playful, feminine pinks and oranges seen in the table and background, and darker, grittier reds, purples and greens found in the eyes, hair, and cactus pot.  The symbolism of the paper chain, cactus, flowers and tablecloth are puzzling, but give the painting plenty of meat.

It also packs a dark, sophisticated punch.  The pink background is deceptive, and reminds me of the color fields seen in Francis Bacon paintings.  Bacon used soothing colors as a backdrop to extremely violent and unnerving paintings that examined death and illness.  This work channels some of that energy.  Although it is a painting of a girl, it reads like a painting of a mountain or a desert.  Where you initially expect innocence and transparency you find a stone wall, red eyes, and a cactus.  "Sphinx" is an apt--if not perfect title.

This piece does a lot of different things.  It's harder to unpack with words than eyes.  Give it a look.