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Life's Symphony (Kyoku)

Maio Motoko Japanese
2011
Not on view
Across a brilliant gold-leaf background, the artist fashioned a wide undulating line from traditional Japanese paper (washi) soaked in ink and crushed-shell pigment (gofun) and then pressed into compact folds. The pair of screens is titled Kyoku, which in Japanese can mean “bend,” “curve,” “music,” or “tune” and is also the term used to describe the individual panels of a folding screen. The artist said of this work, “In the vicissitudes of life, we twist and turn, go and return, but always we aspire to move forward.” This idea and the musical connotations of kyoku led to the work’s English title: Life’s Symphony.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 麻殖生素子筆　「曲」
  • Title: Life's Symphony (Kyoku)
  • Artist: Maio Motoko (Japanese, born Tokyo, 1948)
  • Period: Heisei period (1989–2019)
  • Date: 2011
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; crushed paper, ink, white pigment (gofun), gold leaf, and silk on paper
  • Dimensions: each screen: 59 7/8 in. × 8 ft. 7 1/2 in. (152.1 × 262.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2013
  • Object Number: 2013.461.1, .2
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Maio Motoko
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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