西山 康三郎 Kozaburo NISHIYAMA 無題

西山康三郎（1933〜2024）は、先鋭的な抽象絵画と叙情的な木製オブジェとを手がけた作家です。独立美術協会、パンリアル美術協会、Ge展といった美術コミュニティへの参加と、国内外での個展を通じて、抽象絵画の制作を途切れさせることなく続けました。

西山は1933年に神戸で生まれ、武蔵野美術学校を卒業後、半世紀以上にわたり制作を続けました。初期には独立美術協会を舞台に、キャンバス上の抽象絵画を次々と発表しました。中期はパンリアル美術協会に所属し、同協会の展覧会を中心に関西で活動を重ねます。後期はGe展での発表を軸に、大阪、京都に加えニューヨーク、ミュンヘンでも個展を開き、作品を海外にも届けました。独立美術協会期の抽象絵画、パンリアル美術協会展での出品作、Ge展で発表した作品と、時期ごとの作品もさることながら、晩年に制作した木製の家型オブジェが代表作となります。モノクロの転写を施したヨーロッパの家を思わせる小さなオブジェは、手のひらに収まるサイズながらアートとしての力強さを備えています。

色と形とを簡潔に組み立てる抽象表現が、西山の作品にみられる一貫した特徴です。絵画から立体へと表現方法が変わっても、形と色への関心は継続しました。関西を拠点に国内外で個展を重ね、団体の枠組みを順に移しつつ、平面と立体のあいだを行き来する表現を磨き続けた作家です。

Kozaburo NISHIYAMA (1933–2024) was an artist who worked in avant-garde abstract painting and lyrical wooden objects. Through membership in art communities including the Independent Art Association, the Pan-Real Art Association, and the Ge exhibition, and through solo exhibitions at home and abroad, he continued to produce abstract paintings without interruption.

Nishiyama was born in Kobe in 1933. After graduating from Musashino Art School, he worked for more than half a century. Early in his career, he showed abstract paintings on canvas through the Independent Art Association. In the middle period, he belonged to the Pan-Real Art Association and built his practice mainly around its exhibitions in the Kansai region. Later, he centered his activity on the Ge exhibition and held solo shows in Osaka and Kyoto, as well as in New York and Munich, bringing his work to audiences outside Japan. His representative works include abstract paintings from the Independent Art Association period, works shown at Pan-Real Art Association exhibitions, pieces presented at the Ge exhibition, and, alongside work from each phase, the wooden house-shaped objects he made in his later years. These small objects, which suggest European houses and bear monochrome transfers, fit in the palm of the hand yet carry a strong presence as art.

A consistent feature of Nishiyama's work is abstract expression built concisely from color and form. Even as his approach shifted from painting to three-dimensional work, his interest in shape and color continued. Based in Kansai, he held solo exhibitions in Japan and overseas, moving from one organizational framework to the next while refining an practice that moved between the flat surface and the object.