Shozo Nagano Art

Shozo Nagano (Japanese/American, 1928-2008) "Elements (Beige and White," 1983, acrylic on shaped canvas/wood, signed and dated verso. Verso bears paper label of Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Size: 43.25'' x 30.5'' (110 x 77 cm). The piece is designed to project exactly 2 inches from wall. The painting is executed on canvas stretched over a shaped, flat wood panel. Plywood is a thin 1/4 inch. Illusionistic painted shadow coexists with real shadow as a consequence of the 2-inch float. Provenance: Helena and Joel Lebow; Anita Shapolsky Gallery. The Japanese-born artist hails from Kanazawa, a city on the northern coast of Honshu island. He studied at Kanazawa Fine Arts University during the chaotic days of Occupied Japan. Nagano began showing his work in Tokyo galleries as part of the “Timism” group: a loose association of abstract artists whose manifesto sought to kindle a modern Japanese aesthetic on the embers of the nation’s damped fire. In the early 1960s, he resolved to trade the relative certainties of his homeland for the life of an expatriate artist. He initially sailed across the Pacific on a tramp steamer bound for Santiago, Chile, where he could explore for the first time his vision vis-à-vis a “New World” culture. In 1965, he made his way to New York City, living a threadbare existence in an East Side tenement and painting on bed sheets from Macy’s when he couldn’t afford canvas. It was during his early years in New York that Nagano began experimenting with the shaped canvas format that has come to characterize his work. In the late 1960s, he created a series of a dozen monumental canvases inspired by the New Testament Book of Revelation, which was exhibited at Brooklyn’s historic...

Vintage trompe l'oeil nude male figure by Shozo Nagano 1928-2007. Oil on canvas, lain around board sculpture, circa 1986. Signed on verso.

Shozo Nagano (1928-2007). Elements (Brown and Gray), 1974. Oil on stretched canvas sculpture. Signed and dated at bottom. 42 x 39 x 5.5 inches. Excellent condition with no damage or conservation. Biography: Birth place: Kanazawa, Japan Addresses: NYC Profession: Painter Studied: Kanazawa FA Univ. (A.B.); ASL with Julian Levi...