Expressions in Marble Works by Kan Yasuda
Masaaki Iseki Director, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
The marble sculptures of Kan Yasuda can be summarized
as contemplative and serene.
Where does this come from
and what effect does it have?
It is probably necessary to think of the relationship
between nature and man
when a sculpture is found to be contemplative.
That is because it is man that can make sculptures
and that can meditate.
Man can contemplate through art works
that confront nature.
In this sense,
the works of Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi are also contemplative.
The works of Kan Yasuda are a little bit different.
Instead of a lofty,
intelligent calculated personality,
his works portrays the wondrous soothing attraction
of appreciating people and interacting people.
It can also be said
that it is because the contemplation is disinterested and uncalculating.
This is also evident in the comments
of his friend Isamu Noguchi.
“Yasuda was fortunate in being able to bypass art
and produce so fine a work,
although he will no doubt insist this was his sole intention.”
It can probably be said that
the contemplative character was born from fusion with nature,
rather than departing from nature or being immersed in nature.
This applies to the geometrically shaped sculptures,
such as TENSEI, TENMOKU and TAKOO,
as well as the large maternal and generous sculptures
with soft lines,
including ISHINKI, TENSEN and TENSHO.
The poet, Makoto Ooka made the following remarks
about Kan Yasuda’s works.
“The stone always waits in silence.
The sculptor is always being called by the stone,
But not all sculptors can hear that deep voice.”
Kan Yasuda can do more than listen to the deep voice of the stone.
He is the kind of sculptor that can make the stone speak of nature.
In other words, instead of only speaking to the marble,
by speaking to the marble he is able to make the marble speak.
Regardless of what kind of nature the partner is,
the various stones quietly whisper
through infinite time using their own voices
that move between heaven and Earth and speak of the dignity of life.
There were no differences in the voice of the various marble stones that
were displayed at the individual outdoor exhibition against
the background of the urban landscape
of Milan in 1991,
at the exhibition located in the beautiful natural setting of
Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1995
and the exhibition in the old capital of Firenze in 2000.
Kan Yasuda went to study under Fazzini in 1970 at the age of 25.
After leaving Fazzini, he spent over 25 years working in Pietrasanta,
the city of marble. Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi also studied there.
He began his quest for inner reflection
while learning about nature’s rythms from Fazzini,
respect for nature from Henry Moore
and Japanese beauty from Isamu Noguchi.
Kan Yasuda made the following comments.
“Sculpturing involves using the body to create shapes that
have never before existed on the earth.
I discovered that the most primitive
of these shapes is the egg.”
It is easy to see that
the shape if the egg,
which matches the infinity of marble as a material
with the life of the marble which is born through the eternity of time,
is the introduction to the methodology of Kan Yasuda works.
Kan Yasuda is aware that children are at the beginning
of the period of the both mental
and physical growth when there is no consciousness
between race or regions of the world.
That is why Kan Yasuda would like his works
to be appreciated by children most of all.
I don’t know of the works of any artist
that are appreciated and enjoyed by children
in a happy vein as much as those of Kan Yasuda.
The aim of Kan Yasuda is to have children feel human life
allowing the marble to speak by having children touch his sculptures.
It was our intention to have visitors view
and feel works of arte set in nature firsthand
by placing the sculptures in the Teien Art Museum garden
for public viewing.
And the Italy in Japan Year being staged here
in 2001 is the perfect opportunity
for showing off the works of Kan Yasuda
who has been studying his art for so long in Italy.
Masaaki Iseki
Director, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum

KAZE “Sculptures at the Teien”, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
▶︎Exhibitions / Sculptures at the Teien