Kojin Kudo - Spring Mandala (春曼陀羅)
Kojin Kudo - Spring Mandala (春曼陀羅)
| Artist | Kojin Kudo (Japan, 1915-2011) |
| Year | 1915-2011 |
| Materials | Mineral pigments on paper |
| Size | (H)41.0cm, (W)53.3cm |
| Framed Size | (H)55.7cm, (W)68.0cm, (D)5.0cm |
| Rarity | Unique |
| Medium | Painting |
| Signature | Signed in gold pigment at lower right with red seal below. Artist paper label titled, signed and sealed on upper right of frame back. |
| Condition and Authenticity | Overall good condition, surface stable and colors well preserved. Slight rust at upper right of frame back and on left hanging fitting. This artwork does not include a certificate of authenticity, but it retains the paper label titled, signed and sealed by the artist on the reverse of the frame. |
| Provenance | Auction in Japan |
| Frame | Framed in a silver-toned wooden frame with a dark outer molding and a gold inner fillet, brushed metal outer edging, green backing board and purple hanging cord. Original outer box and yellow cloth bag included. |
Kojin Kudo grew up among the woods and fields of Tsugaru in the far north of Japan, and the small living things he watched there became the subject of his entire career. In this painting a cluster of fern fronds uncurls at the center of a warm gold-brown field. A long-tailed bird drops in from the upper left, two pale butterflies drift down from the upper right, and clover blossoms open along the lower edge. There is no horizon and no defined ground: the space is not a place but a state of mind, built up in soft layers of mineral pigment on paper. The title borrows the word for mandala, the Buddhist diagram of the cosmos, and the composition follows that logic. Small creatures and plants are arranged around a central axis of new growth, each one a link in a single circuit of life. This is the dreamlike, quietly animated nature that made Kudo one of the leading voices of postwar Japanese-style painting. The work carries the artist's signature and vermilion seal in gold at the lower right, and his own paper label, titled and sealed, on the reverse of the frame. It is offered framed, with its original outer box and yellow cloth bag.