$2,370
Paul T. Nagano (American, b. 1938) Admiring the Cherry Tree-South End Signed and dated "Nagano 88" l.l., titled and identified on a label affixed to the reverse. Watercolor on paper, sheet size 30 x 22 1/4 in. (76.2 x 56.5 cm), framed. Condition: Not examined out of frame. N.B. The Western and Eastern influences of Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, and Japanese Nanga or 'literati' painting have guided Boston watercolorist Paul T. Nagano's work for the last forty years. As a Hawaiian-born Japanese-American artist, Nagano thinks of his work, which is mostly inspired by nature, as 'an expression of the synthesis of East and West that I am myself.' Of Matisse's influence, he notes: '…by the end of [Matisse's] career, he had distilled the visible world into the most elemental of simple lines and shapes and colors. For me, it seems to have been an opposite journey.' The present work is depicted in Nagano's impressionistic style. The artist is intimately familiar with the subject, both as a specific kind of landscape (i.e. tropical) and a particular locale. Nagano trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and was the director of the Pucker/Safrai Gallery, Boston for over two decades. His works are held in the collections of the Neka Museum, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Boston Public Library, among others.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2008-03-07
