04/01/2016

Radical Expressiveness – The Art and Creative Process of Yuichi Inoue

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Inoue Yûichi, 1955 (photo: Asahi Shinbun)

This blog has always been about introducing artists and having a platform to showcase new and interesting work. Also highlighting creativity in general and understanding its role today’s world. Often though, you have to look back and see what has come before, researching the different paths that have led us to the position we’re in today. Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, Barbara Hepworth, Calder, and many more have inspired me in this journey, and today another fantastic artist who goes by the name of Yuichi Inoue is added to the list.

Yuichi Inoue is a Japanese artist who was born in Tokyo, he started working as a primary school teacher but later trained for eight years with talented calligrapher Ueda Sokyu. At the age of 35 he held his first exhibition and is classed as one of the most important Japanese artists of the 20th century. On a personal level I’m inspired by the pure expression in his works, and his ability to let himself go and be in the moment. Although trained traditionally as a calligrapher, he ventured outside the box and pushed himself to explore creativity.

Using kanji characters, which are a metaphor for communicating his artistic message and his internal state, he focused on developing his inner power which was then expressed in his writing. Thus, he was extremely self-critical of his work and destroyed anything that he thought was inferior, now not too many works exist, but the ones that do are quite something. Here’s a selection of works and photos from his website to inspire you, I hope you like them and will check out more on the link below.

yu-ichi.com

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Inoue Yûichi in his studio, 1984 (photo: Itô Tokio)