阿部展也／Abe Nobuya

阿部展也は、画家、写真家、評論家、中世墓石彫刻の研究家として幅広く活躍したマルチアーティストです。

1913年、新潟県五泉市に生まれた阿部は、中学校を中退後、独学で絵画を学びました。1937年には、詩人で美術評論家の瀧口修造（1903〜1979）との共作による詩画集【妖精の距離】で若くして注目を集め、本格的に画家としての道を歩み始めます。さらに、瀧口の勧めにより実験的な写真作品も制作し、雑誌「フォトタイムス」を中心に発表を重ねるなど、戦前の前衛写真の歴史にも特筆すべき足跡を残しています。戦時中の1941年からは、写真の腕前を買われ陸軍の報道部写真班に所属し、出征先のフィリピンで、陸軍が発行に関わった雑誌の表紙絵や挿画なども手がけました。戦後、帰国して画壇に復帰した阿部は、自身の作風を目まぐるしく変化させていきます。当初はキュビスムやシュルレアリスムの潮流に沿い、戦争体験をもとに具象的なモチーフを描いていましたが、1950年代末頃になると、当時の日本美術界を席巻していたアンフォルメルへ関心を移し、やがて幾何学的かつ抽象的な画風を確立させていきました。またこの時期には、フィリピンで体得した英語力や類まれなバイタリティを駆使してニューヨークやパリ、ウィーン、インド、東欧に渡り、世界の美術動向の最先端に触れ、国際造形芸術連盟の執行委員も務めました。こうした中で、阿部は新しい知識や感性を貪欲に吸収し、自身の創作に取り入れるとともに、雑誌への寄稿や展覧会を通じて日本にも積極的に紹介しました。

1971年にローマで客死するまで、枠に収まることなく常に自分の外側にある世界を見据え続けた阿部の作品は力強く、生命力と探究心にあふれています。

Nobuya Abe was a multi-artist who worked extensively as a painter, photographer, critic, and researcher of medieval tombstone sculpture.

Born in 1913 in Gosen, Niigata Prefecture, Abe taught himself to paint after dropping out of junior high school. In 1937, he attracted attention at a young age with his collection of poems and paintings “The Distance of the Fairy”, which he created with the poet and art critic Shuzo Takiguchi (1903-1979). He began his career as a painter in earnest. At Takiguchi’s suggestion, he also produced experimental photographic works, which were published mainly in the magazine “Photo Times” and made a remarkable mark in the history of prewar avant-garde photography. From 1941, during the war, he was a member of the Army Press Department’s Photo Unit. He worked on covers and illustrations for magazines published by the Army in the Philippines, where he was serving during the war. After the war, Abe returned to Japan and quickly changed his style after entering the art world. At first, he painted figurative motifs based on his war experiences in line with the trends of Cubism and Surrealism, but by the end of the 1950s he shifted his interest to the Art Informel that was then sweeping the Japanese art world, eventually establishing a geometric and abstract painting style. During this period, he also traveled to New York, Paris, Vienna, India, and Eastern Europe, using the English he learned in the Philippines and his extraordinary vitality to keep abreast of world art trends, and served on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Plastic Arts. Under these circumstances, Abe eagerly absorbed new knowledge and sensibilities, incorporated them into his own creations, and actively introduced them to Japan through magazine articles and exhibitions.

Until his death in Rome in 1971, Abe’s artwork was powerful, vital, and inquisitive.