Ryonosuke Shimomura is a painter who was active based in Kyoto, Japan. He was part of the Pan-Real Art Association, which was formed with the aim of innovating traditional Japanese painting, and he engaged in avant-garde creative activities that were not bound by tradition.
Born in Osaka in 1923, he moved to Kyoto at the age of 12 and studied both the Kyoto Municipal Arts and Crafts School and the Kyoto Municipal Painting school. After experience of student mobilization during World War II, he dedicated himself to the pursuit of painting and joined the aforementioned Pan-Real Art Association in 1948. While using materials and techniques of traditional Japanese painting, he initially incorporated Cubism’s methods to explore new expressions. He also challenged social themes, inspired by his experiences during the war, breaking away from the conventional practices on the traditional subjects of flowers, birds, wind, and moon. Shimomura’s themes gradually narrowed down to birds, and his brushstrokes evolved into sharp lines using architectural ink. In the late 1960s, he began to create his own unique sculptures by shaping the surface of the artwork like relief using paper clay and forming bird motifs resembling fossils.
From the 1980s onwards, he worked in a wide range of genres, including stage art, printmaking, and ceramics called “Yakemono”. He constantly maintained a pioneering spirit that earned him the nickname “rebellious artist”.
As people change over the years, works also develop shifts and changes with age. The works offered at Untitled range from comparatively recent pieces of about twenty years to older works that have passed through nearly seventy years.
Small scratches, changes in the paint surface, shifts in paper or support—these are not mere deterioration but traces of the time the work has lived through.
We do not value only perfect condition. We hope you will receive each work as a single existence, together with the time it has accumulated.
Accessories
Whether a work is framed is noted on each work page. Frame condition varies by work; please contact us in advance if you would like details.
We also accept custom framing matched to the work. As each piece is made individually for the space and work, delivery takes approximately two months.
Framed works include a storage box. Depending on the work, a new box may be made after purchase, which may take several weeks.
