Ulala Imai
Summit, 2020
Oil on canvas
71 5/8 x 89 1/2 in
181.8 x 227.3 cm
181.8 x 227.3 cm
ULAIMA_2020_NHG07_28
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Imai Ulala What Imai Ulala portrays are perfectly everyday, commonplace items such as a piece of buttered toast or fruit on a dining table, vegetables, stuffed toys, and figure dolls....
Imai Ulala
What Imai Ulala portrays are perfectly everyday, commonplace items such as a piece of buttered toast or fruit on a dining table, vegetables, stuffed toys, and figure dolls. However, once Imai sets her hands on them, the viewers are enchanted as the food looks so fresh and tasty, and the dolls reveal a magical presence as if they were actors in a play.
One of the reasons that the still lifes in this painting look so full of life may be that they are painted in casually abbreviated, quick brushstrokes. Rather than approaching the subject scrupulously as in a photograph, Imai’s paintbrush aptly grasps the “impression” she gets from the subject, leaving a sense of fluidity. Imai says, “my mind and body correspond” when she is working on an oil painting. Accordingly, there is an invigorating feel that the artist’s eyes and the speed or rhythm at which she paints are linked directly.
In this painting entitled Summit, a miscellany of objects including cherished toy characters and souvenirs are gathered. At a time when the world is getting divided everywhere and has been hit by viruses, in this painting, originally nonrelated characters are smiling at us alongside one another. The world composed in a corner of Imai’s house from day to day has a universality that many people can empathize with, and it makes us happy simply by looking at it.
Sakamoto Akemi
Chief Curator, The Ueno Royal Museum
What Imai Ulala portrays are perfectly everyday, commonplace items such as a piece of buttered toast or fruit on a dining table, vegetables, stuffed toys, and figure dolls. However, once Imai sets her hands on them, the viewers are enchanted as the food looks so fresh and tasty, and the dolls reveal a magical presence as if they were actors in a play.
One of the reasons that the still lifes in this painting look so full of life may be that they are painted in casually abbreviated, quick brushstrokes. Rather than approaching the subject scrupulously as in a photograph, Imai’s paintbrush aptly grasps the “impression” she gets from the subject, leaving a sense of fluidity. Imai says, “my mind and body correspond” when she is working on an oil painting. Accordingly, there is an invigorating feel that the artist’s eyes and the speed or rhythm at which she paints are linked directly.
In this painting entitled Summit, a miscellany of objects including cherished toy characters and souvenirs are gathered. At a time when the world is getting divided everywhere and has been hit by viruses, in this painting, originally nonrelated characters are smiling at us alongside one another. The world composed in a corner of Imai’s house from day to day has a universality that many people can empathize with, and it makes us happy simply by looking at it.
Sakamoto Akemi
Chief Curator, The Ueno Royal Museum