Thirteen-panel screen with bamboo

Folding screen with bamboo

Maio Motoko (1948 - )

183 x 513 cm

Thirteen-panel screen Washi paper, fabric and pigments

The screen is composed by thirteen panels of graduating size (57.5 cm to 21.5 cm) decorated on both sides. One side represents a bamboo forest, with parallel applied papier-mâché bamboo plants, while the back is an abstract design with a silver irregular band on a cobalt blue background of antique fabrics and paper. This screen perfectly shows Maio’s ability in mastering materials in order to create tactile surfaces and strong compositions, rough and delicate at the same time. The traditional Japanese painting media of the folding screen is here re-thought as a sculptural support, becoming at the same time a decorative flat surface and a work of art that can be appreciated in three dimensions. The graduating width of the panels gives in fact the opportunity to create different shapes and transform the space; instead of just splitting the room, as the traditional folding screen does, the different decorations play here together and show two faces of the same world. The Japanese folding screens of Motoko Maio seem to be a new invention, revealing that the traditional art and culture of Japan have continued unbroken into the modern period, where they thrive in new and exciting ways.

Japanese screen  for sale. Price on application. Please include item stock number: byo-1005