Self-portrait, January 2010

Self-portrait
自画像

Oil, acrylics and cotton on panel
パネルに綿布、アクリル、油彩
45.5x53.0cm, 2010

Tokyo University of the Arts Museum Collection
東京藝術大学附属美術館蔵

All Oil Course, Japanese Painting Course and Sculpture Course students of Tokyo University of the Arts students paints their own self-portrait with graduation work when they are graduating. This unusual tradition was started about 120 years ago by Kuroda Seiki, a painter and also a professor of the university. All of those self-portraits are collected in the University Museum without judging if the work was good or not and the painters never can see their own works except any kind of special exhibition which needs those self-portraits was held.

This is my own work and I don't think it is a "good work", because when I was painting this work, always I got upset and somehow tried to mess the work up. The subject of this work is based on my personal experience. When my grandmother died, my father showed me a old picture which he told me that he found in grandmother's room. The picture was showing about 11 of her brothers and sisters and I found a man with terrifying eyes. My father told me that actually he was a silent man with great talent to grow orchids. I am quite interested in this obscure ancestor and tried to paint my self-portrait as a frightening picture so my descendants would have a similar experience with me.