倉橋元治展 – 新潟絵屋

11/15［水］― 28［火］

niigata eya exhibition 661

　倉橋元治は木こりと自分では言っていたそうだが、祖父、父から継いだ樹木の伐採を仕事にしていた。美術表現を始めたきっかけは30歳のころ棟方志功の版画を見たことで、それから全くの独学で版画や絵画、立体等を制作し続け、作品は高い評価も受け、5年前70歳で亡くなった。版画は木版画で、立体の素材もすべて木（一部は土）だった、彼自身が伐った木から生まれた作品だったのだろう。
　倉橋林業の広告に「ブロックや家のそばの木は屋根や基礎を傷める」とあった。当り前のことながら、あまり見ない注意書き。人の都合で植えられた木が枝を自由に伸ばせず、伐られる痛みを彼は想っていたのかもしれない。
　大きな立体作品「ゴッホの部屋」（現存せず）ではゴッホが「休息を表した」と弟テオに書き送った絵のベッドが、実物大に再現されたが、台面には刺にも見える傷が刻まれていた。痛みのモチーフは、社会・人間批評をにじませた初期作から、晩年まで、どの作品にも垣間見える。きこりをしながら表現し続けた人生にも、喜びとともに、人に語れない痛みがあっただろう。しかしその作品には、ユーモアやペーソスにも通じるふしぎな温かみがある。伐られてもなお生きていく街中（＝人間世界）の樹木の、命の、明るさが歌になって、きこりの芸術家のレンズを通過して映えているようだ。
〈文：大倉宏　企画者：（故）武田光一・大倉宏〉

Motoharu Kurahashi called himself a lumberjack, and his job was to cut down trees; he inherited this career from his grandfather and father. He started his artistic expression when he was 30 years old that he saw a print by Shiko Munakata. Since then, he was completely self-taught and continued to create prints, paintings, and sculptures, and his works received high acclaim. He died five years ago at the age of 70. The prints were woodblock prints, and the materials for the three-dimensional works were all wood (some were clay), probably created from trees that he himself had cut down. An advertisement by Kurahashi Forestry Inc said, “Trees on blocks or near houses can damage roofs and foundations.” This is a warning that is obvious, but one that we do not see often. Perhaps he was thinking of the pain of trees planted for human reasons that cannot grow their branches freely and are cut down.
　In the large three-dimensional work “Van Gogh’s Room” (not extant), the bed in the painting, Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, represented rest, was reproduced life size; but the surface was carved with wounds that looked like stings. The motif of pain can be glimpsed in all of Kurahashi’s works, from his early works, which ooze social and human criticism, to his later works. In his life as a lumberjack, he must have had both joys and pains that he could not talk about. However, there is a mysterious warmth in his works that can be likened to humor and pathos. The brightness of life of trees in the city (i.e., the human world), which live on even after being cut down, seems to be captured through the lens of the lumberjack artist in the form of a song.
〈Written by Hiroshi Okura Exhibition Planner: (Late) Koichi Takeda and Hiroshi Okura〉

倉橋元治（くらはしもとはる）
1947年神奈川県平塚市生まれ。祖父の代からの林業を継ぐ。30歳の頃から表現活動を始める。1988年ウッディアート・フェスティバル（東京）で大賞、89年神奈川県美術展で準大賞（立体）、県立近代美術館賞を受賞。91、92年現代日本美術展入選。ほかグループ展参加多数。東京、神奈川、イスラエルなどのギャラリーや美術館での個展多数。2018年没。町立湯河原美術館、ギャラリーNEW新九郎（小田原）、丹沢美術館（秦野市）などで遺作展が開かれた。

Motoharu Kurahashi
Born in 1947 in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kurahashi took over his grandfather’s forestry business. He began his artistic activities at the age of 30, winning the Grand Prize at the Wood Art Festival (Tokyo) in 1988, and the Second Prize (three-dimensional work) at the Kanagawa Prefectural Art Exhibition in 1989. He was selected for the Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan in 1991 and 1992. Participated in many other group exhibitions. Numerous solo exhibitions at galleries and museums in Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Israel. Died in 2018. Exhibitions of his posthumous works were held at the Yugawara Art Museum, Gallery NEW Shinkurou (Odawara), Tanzawa Art Museum (Hadano), and others.

PHOTO（上）: 磔刑／木、金属 150×143cm

PHOTO: つののある人／木 19×43×46cm

立ち木を自ら切り倒し
ある部分を建築材料にし
ある部分を紙の材料にし
ある部分を自分の彫刻に使い
その木っ端で小品を作り
その残りで風呂を沸かし
その灰を地面に戻し…
川の中を転がる石のように生活し
いつの日か大海に出て
いつの日か岸の真砂になる…

＊

Art is Long 　Life is Short
芸術でもなく　工芸でもなく　商品でもない
それは、自分自身が生きるための必要なものであり、行為である。
興奮し、血が騒ぎ、心安らぎ、解放され、自然に体から湧き出してきたもの。

（作者の言葉）

Cut down standing trees by myself

Some parts are for building materials

Some parts are for paper

Some parts are for my sculpture

The pieces are for my small works

Boil in a bath with the rest of it

Put the ashes back in the ground…

Live like a stone rolling in the river

Someday will go out to ocean

One day become sand on the shore…

＊

Art is Long, Life is Short

It is not art, it is not a craft, it is not　goods

It is an act, a necessity for one’s own survival. Excitement, blood rushes, peace of mind, liberating, and spontaneously something　comes out of the body.　

(Kurahashi’s words)