![Kametaro Kawasaki, 聖火「オリンピックをのぞんで」(Sacred Flame [Praying for the Olympics] ), 1935](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy/ws-michaelhoppen/usr/images/artworks/main_image/12277/21002-kkw-retouched.jpg)
Kametaro Kawasaki
聖火「オリンピックをのぞんで」(Sacred Flame [Praying for the Olympics] ), 1935
Signed, titled, numbered '2' in ink (unidentifiable hand) on a label affixed verso. Label is for the 'The Camera Pictorialists of Japan, Osaka Branch', exhibition label
Vintage silver gelatin print
29 x 24.5 cm
Kawasaki Kametarō was a prominent member of one of Japan's most celebrated camera clubs, the Kansai-based Tanpei Group. As the driving force of avant-garde Modernism during the pre-war period, the Tanpei Camera Club were responsible for some of the most forward-looking collective work of the 20th Century, including the Wandering Jew series, which documented the lives of Eastern European refugees who started a new life in Kobe, Japan.
This photograph frames a spiralling tendrillous plant in a modern vase, in a still life which draws heavily upon contemporary Surrealist imagery. The bold contrasts and unusual forms create a striking, ironic repost to Pictorialist compositions of the previous generation.