The business of a good painter is to paint. Kyohei Inukai, who is a born painter, has known this from the start. He has painted on, heedless of all else (and of theories most of all), graduating from one vision to another until he attained this present, fully mellowed maturity and plentitude of expression. Along the way, and almost against his will, critics have noticed the milestones; they have paid their tribute of esteem in various terms, praising the large and generous sensuality that embraces not only the human form but every vital manifestation, the strength and emphatic terseness of the visual statements, and, unanimously, the rich, dark, and subtle colouring.

All this is as true now as it ever was. But in this new group of paintings the severe and thoughtful Inukai makes a startling revelation: Joy. A joy that fairly sings and bubbles not only chromatically, in sonorous jewel tones, but as well in a linear sense. These new compositions vibrate with pulsating life, as if the pattern were a net stretched taut over throbbing flesh. Yet, paradoxically, it is monumentality also that is achieved in those small, carefree, and yet awesomely dense studies.

It is certainly significant that this painter should be, in his spare moments, a maker of exquisite haiku – casual gems of a few preciously chosen words, brimful of richest poesy, which in turn he then illustrates with sparse elegance. The same refinement and eloquence, the deceptive simplicity and infinitely wise candor, are faithfully reflected in the paintings on view here. Let us be thankful therefore that Inukai has indeed all along minded his one appointed business: to paint. For he has travelled many paths, but he has at last come into his inheritance. East and West do meet here in a unique harmony.

M.L.D’OTRANGE MASTAI

Former American Editor, " The Connoisseur"