蜷川有紀展『薔薇の神曲Ⅱ』
Yuki Ninagawa Exhibition
La Divina Commedia della RosaⅡ
2022年11月1日（火）〜12日(土)
(会期中無休)
於:吉井画廊
〒104-0061 東京都中央区銀座8-4-25
営業時間 平日:10:00～19:00土
日曜&祭日:11:00～18:00
蜷川有紀 在廊予定
連日 14:00~17:00
（*初日、土、日曜、祭日、最終日は18:00まで在廊）
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A huge, 3m x 6m sized painting called “Pellegrino dell’Anima”
whose theme was‘Purgatorio’ of “Devine Comedy”
by Dante Alighieri was finally completed
by Yuki Ninagawa!
A lot of people were mesmerized by the size and elaborateness of “L’inferno di rosa” whose theme was ‘Inferno’ which was shown in 2017. Projection mapping and the AI Chef Watson also represented the world of Dante there,
and it succeeded exceptionally as an art event.
Since the unprecedented disasters assailed the world,
we missed out the timing to show her new artwork,
but we can finally display it this autumn.
In this painting, a mysterious place “Purgatory” which links this world and the next,
is drawn with a shade of iwa-enogu (mineral pigment) based on gunjo (azurite-based blue.)
At “Galerie Yoshii” that is famous as one of Japan’s leading and long-established art galleries,
please enjoy the mystic mountains and the purgation journey of souls that didn’t do anything
they had to do during their lifetimes.
How She Represents “Purgatorio”
– The Rose Painter’s New Progress
I wondered how she would visualize ‘Purgatorio’ whose Christian ideology is the clearest in
“The DivineComedy.” As Dante with seven letters of Ps from Peccati (meaning “sins” in Italian,)
representing the deadly sins, climbs up the steps of the Purgatory hill the letters are erased one by one,
and once he reaches the summit, purgation completes and his guide Virgil left there,
then his beloved Beatrice appears. I wondered how the rose painter Yuki Ninagawa
would make such a religious and ethical story two-dimensional.
Even the hell was consisted of roses.
This time, however, she completely avoided roses for representation,
used red as less as possible and made a grand Purgatory hill with striking ultramarine
blue of iwa-enogu (mineral pigment) appear. I can’t help sensing the rose painter’s new progress here.
She might climbed up the steps as a painter like Dante climbing up the Purgatory hill.
While yielding to this striking world of ultramarine blue,
we may catch a glance of her next progress in the upcoming “Paradiso.”
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Divine Comedy: Purgatorio by Dante
and Yuki Ninagawa’s Creation
Kumiko Tanaka (President of Bunsei University of Art, Art historian)
Subsequently to the “Inferno” with swirling benishinsha (red cinnabar)-colored roses,
a huge artwork “Purgatorio” with wriggling ultramarine blue.
Once a fantastic piano by Franz Liszt “Après une lecture de Dante” is played,
Yuki Ninagawa’s body starts to wiggle on a blank Japanese paper.
It’s a kickoff of “Purgatorio.” Ultramarine blue scatters on the surface and becomes a river.
She sweeps it to scatter around with a bamboo broom.
She suddenly kneels down and presses the blue on the paper with her hands,
and slaps and spreads it. She pours,
scatters and rubs the blue while walking and stopping on the paper.
The blue sways and crawls in resonance with Ninagawa’s body movement look as if
she is intoxicated with the music and herself,
and the formless figure of “Purgatorio”appears. She draws as if performing,
and the wriggling ultramarine blue surface is a vestige of her movement.
Purgatory is located between the hell and the heaven and it’s a place
where souls repent of their sins and purify themselves to ascend to the heaven.
Unlike the hell and the heaven, this concept was created by
Catholic just about 100 years before Dante was born.
Purgatory is a rocky hill filled with 7 paths that correspond to each of the seven deadly sins. Sinners who committed pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greedy,
gluttony or lust keeps travel for purgation.
The sinners of pride carrying heavy stones on their backs and walking as if crawling.
The sinners of sloth running with no rest.
Silhouettes of greedy sinners quietly standing motionless.
The sinners of lust suffering from raging flames.
Faces with stitched eyes of women who committed envy.
Those things fill the paths in layers.
The wriggling sinners climb toward the summit
and make a spiral around the hill of purgatory.
Ninagawa’s purgatory hill is covered by silent and deep ultramarine blue.
The deep, strong, and beautiful Gunjo(azurite-based blue) loved from old times is a color of the universe, purification, and dawn. The moan of the sinners becomes a voice of an earnest wish for salvation, and the writhing of the sinners becomes a pilgrimage of souls for purgation in front of our eyes. The hill of purgatory becomes a hope.
