Transfiguration - From Figure to Landscape

The work of Leiko Ikemura (born in Mie, Japan, lives and works in Berlin and Cologne), which spans more than thirty years, consists of paintings, watercolors, drawings, and terracotta and bronze sculptures. The artist studied painting at the Academy in Seville from 1973 to 1978. In 1979 she went to Zurich, and later to Cologne. In 1991 she was appointed professor of painting at the Berlin University of the Arts. In the 1980s, Ikemura devoted herself to painting, which in this early phase conveys a strong emotionality through the intensity of color and expressive ductus. Since the early 1990s, girl figures have emerged as a central theme in her paintings and as sculptures. Leiko Ikemura sees herself as a border crosser between Japanese and occidental art. The occidental influences can also be found in the head motif, a second main theme of her work. In her horizon paintings, which have been created since the mid-1990s, she shows the situation of transition as a spatial and metaphysical principle. In the large-format landscapes begun in 2007, there is an exploration of Japanese art in the form of stylized mountains, rivers, and clouds. With a text by Julian Heynen and a conversation between Kenjiro Hosaka and Reiko Nakamura, curators at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Maiko Hara, curator at the Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Mie, and Leiko Ikemura.