No. 43

Yoshio Sekine was a member of the Gutai Art Association, a modernist group based outside of Osaka. After leaving the group and moving to Tokyo in 1959, he became known for his abacus paintings straddling representation and abstraction. No. 43, an early example from this important series, presents two abaci in symmetry on their long sides. Around the central axis of the painting, the instruments’ rods, beams, and top halves of the beads dominate visually in white, as if two overlapping spotlights shine on the picture. The patterns create an optical effect of shifting perceptions between a recognizable object and geometric forms. The mobility of the beads, in their original function, adds to the cognitive and visual conundrum. No. 43 can be exhibited in vertical or horizontal orientations, providing another layer of variability in configuration and play. By depicting a household object that determines its meaning by patterns, Sekine questions how meaning manifests when the painted object is flattened to geometry, citing Jasper Johns’ Target paintings as an inspiration. An abacus also points to a more stringent era before Japan’s rapid industrialization in the 1960s, marking social changes through the abstract patterns.