Edutainment > Shigeki Kuroda - born 1953

After the Rain

By Shigeki Kuroda

The art of Shigeki Kuroda reflects current times. His themes deal with the fundamental characteristics of today's modern society. Their presentation as well as motifs, composition and techniques, however, stem from Japanese traditions.

First Publication: May 2009
Latest Update: April 2013

In this way, Shigeki Kuroda emerged not only in leading circles of contemporary Japanese artists, but also among internationally recognized artists. Today his works have an renowned reputation worldwide.

From Tradition to the Modern

Shigeki Kuroda was born in 1953 in Yokohama in the Kanagawa Prefecture, which by then was already a large metropolis with over one million people and a modern outlook. After the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, little of the city's history remained in buildings.

The artist grew up in the midst of a conflict between tradition and the western modernization and industrialization. Against this backdrop, Kuroda deals with the change of the Japanese cultural identity in his works.

Though Japanese art education at the time mostly dealt with traditional art, Shigeki Kuroda enjoyed a modern education in art. In 1977 he began studying painting at Tama University of Art in Tokyo and finished with a Masters degree in 1979. He very quickly became active in exhibitions and developed broad interests.

In 1984 he traveled to the United States with a prestigious educational grant. A year later, he extended his stay and participated in an exchange program with an art foundation.

Style and Technique of Shigeki Kuroda

Royal Blue

By Shigeki Kuroda

For many years Shigeki Kuroda worked hard to develop his own style and to perfect it for his needs. From a technical point of view it is a mix of aquatints, drypoints and etchings, that he further developed using watercolors, pencil and Sumi-Indian ink. This variety of print materials allowed the artist to overcome contemporary artistic challenges, for example movement, specific light or spacial abstraction.

The prints from Shigeki Kuroda limit themselves to few sparingly applied colors. He only seldom uses colorful and bright accents. Otherwise the graphical element dominates, not the color, and the fine and detailed picture captivates.

Themes and Motifs

Day Break

By Shigeki Kuroda

Shigeki Kuroda focused curiously on a single motif: a closed group of bicycle riders on continuous ride with umbrellas that can be repeated multiple times in the picture.

There is a certain humor in this picture that is not uncommon, since he is dealing with life in traditional Japan. Kuroda, however, puts the riders in a context that confuses and has a certain surrealist effect.

Kuroda rips a distinctive motif from Japanese culture out of its normal surroundings and sets it in a new and strange setting - in a landscape or in a room formed by two dimensional scenery.

As if he wanted to check, in which world the Japanese tradition still endures, Kuroda creates fictitious reality, real, but also abstract art. The reduction to a theme gives his collection the sense of a continual experiment that is carried out with human and artistic dedication.

More about Shigeki Kuroda

1 object(s) by Shigeki Kuroda born 1953 in current auction Japanese Prints - 1101

40 sold object(s) by Shigeki Kuroda born 1953 in our Art Archive

1 signature(s) by Shigeki Kuroda in our Signature Database

Other Pages Related to Shigeki Kuroda

• Prints by Shigeki Kuroda - born 1953

Author: rp
Updated by Dieter Wanczura

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