Additional Images

Provenance:

Acquired directly from the artist;
Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

Nakamura was influenced by a series of books published by the Bauhaus school and edited by Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy. Moholy-Nagy was among the first to suggest the use of scientific equipment such as the telescope, microscope and x-rays in the making of art, which aligned with Nakamura’s interest in integrating science and mathematics with art. The Bauhaus books included a series of essays by Dutch painter and art theoretician Piet Mondrian, focusing on his evolution from figurative painting to abstraction. Mondrian spent around five years from 1908 to 1913 painting trees. His interest was in the geometric patterns of tree branches, and how they represented the inherent order present in nature. Mondrian would use this as an entrance into increasing abstraction and geometry rendering the trees themselves invisible and leading to his famous grid-bound mature work.

Both Mondrian and Nakamura were interested in reducing the natural world to basic geometric components. The influence of Mondrian’s early work can be felt in Nakamura’s painting, specifically in the manner in which the natural begins to dissolve into the abstract.