Comments

Matsumoto's 9 x 9 paintings

The Matsumoto's 9 X 9 paintings are very intriguing and challenging: commentators have pointed to "..amazing use of color and texture draw us into a world of wonderous pigment and emotional expressions." But, in my opinion, such comments (while capturing real facts) on the whole miss the point. What distinguishes those little paintings from other, bigger ones, is the fact that they speak about such an elusive element as TIME.
Time, in Matsumoto's "9x9"s, emerges in the sequence, not in any single painting: I mean, does the "June 4, 2009" speak about the weather of that particular day (and observed where?) or the inner attitude of the painter or anything else? I think it does not...according to Wittgenstein there's no such thing as the flowing of time, it can only be measured by some other physical process, like the movement of the hands of a watch. Matsumoto' 9x9 paintings perform such a function, behave like different positions of the hands of a clock, the "June 4, 2009" says that there has already been the "June 3, 2009" and that "June 5, 2009" will follow...But, unlike watches, the 9x9 paintings keep memory of time, they accumulate, they grow in number, in a sense they make time visible, like a flower or a plant does, but they give a LINEAR representation to time, a painting a day, while physical phenomena usually have a nonlinear dynamics (one year in the life of a two years old little boy is not the same as one year in the life of a sixty years old man). So, in a way, life cannot be wholly captured by the 9x9 paintings, once more life is more complicate...a title for the whole sequence could be "The Physical Impossibility of Time representation In the Mind of Someone Living", to paraphrase the Damien Hirst's title for his very famous (and a bit expensive) shark.

Francesco Filippi, Professor of Economics, University of Pisa, Italy August 2009


Collections of Francesco Filippi

Bio

Born(1953) in Kobe city, Japan. I studied drawing and painting at the Art Institute of Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and have exhibited in many solo shows and group exhibitions.

Artist Statement

I love oil paint, it's texture, viscosity, slow-drying time and smell. I paint abstract. I never know what it is going to be until it's complete. When I start to paint, I always put some colours on the canvas without thinking. My choice of colours is often accidental or intuitive. I try to catch the chance meeting of colour with composition. Sometimes I get lost, and then other times I find myself walking along a path that brings me back to where I belong. Abstract is for me a concrete way to share an inner sense, place and time with you directly and deeply.

My shop

To purchase original oil paintings online please visit my Esty shop

Galleries

Gallery NOMA: 3-19-24 Minami-hanayasiki Kawanishi, Hyogo JAPAN / PHONE 072-741-4114 / Website
Art Pushpin: 1-1-2 Chamachi Aoi-ku Sizuoka-city, Shizuoka JAPAN / PHONE 054-251-9377
Gallery KEIKO GOTO: 459 Kosuwa Numazu-city, Shizuoka JAPAN / Website - ebay store
Art Transact: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia / Website
Il Ramo d'Oro(non-profit art gallery): Napoli, Italy / Website
Three Ravens Gallery: Ardmore, PA U.S. / Website

Selected Exhibition

NOMA Gallery & Shop   "NOMAMISE SPRING"
3/30/2012 - 4/1/2012 Gallery NOMA, Hyogo, Japan

NOMA Gallery & Shop 6  "NOMAMISE"
12/16/2011 - 12/18/2011 Gallery NOMA, Hyogo, Japan

Group Exhibition "Japan Live"
12/03/2011 - 12/18/2011 Il Ramo d'Oro, Napoli, Italy