inner scenes – Saburo Aso, Masayoshi Nakamura, Tatsuoki Nambata December 5 (Fri) – December 20 (Sat), 2025

Gallery NOW is pleased to present “inner scenes,” an exhibition featuring three painters who each pursued their own distinct modes of expression and opened new horizons in postwar Japanese modern art: Saburo Aso (1913–2001), Masayoshi Nakamura (1924–1977), and Tatsuoki Nambata (1905–1997).
Saburo Aso depicted the loneliness and anxiety inherent in human existence—set against the backdrop of war and the postwar era—through distorted forms and vigorous brushwork that convey the will to live despite adversity. Confronting reality head-on while turning his gaze inward, he consistently explored “landscapes inhabited by human beings,” shaped and shaken by the forces of their time. His paintings do not reproduce external reality; rather, they reveal the very shadows and resonances of the psyche drawn out through lived experience.
Masayoshi Nakamura, a Japanese-style painter long regarded as an iconoclast in the nihonga world, upheld the paradoxical stance that “the grotesque can also be beautiful.” His boldly constructed compositions and at times demonically charged figures break away from conventional aesthetic norms, embodying a struggle to capture the raw energy of life on the picture plane. Created as he confronted illness and fueled by a critical spirit toward tradition and institutional structures, his works reveal an inner turbulence that transcends outward notions of beauty and ugliness.
Tatsuoki Nambata, known as a pioneer of Japanese abstract painting, began with an interest in poetry and philosophy and sought to evoke emotional and spiritual tremors through the rhythms of line and color alone. Even after relinquishing concrete motifs, his abstract canvases retain a lingering sense of collective figures or narrative presence, where quiet lyricism coexists with an inner pulse. What emerges is not a visible landscape but an Eastern-inflected mindscape in which sensation and memory intertwine.
From expressionist figuration to radical nihonga and pure abstraction,
we hope this exhibition offers an opportunity to illuminate the “inner landscapes” that reside within each of us, through the distinct yet resonant approaches of these three artists.

Exhibition Dates: December 5 (Fri) – December 20 (Sat), 2025
Opening Hours: 10:00 – 17:00
Closed: Sundays and Mondays

Saburō Aso
1913 Born in Tokyo
1930 Studied at the Taiheiyo Art School and met Shunsuke Matsumoto and others
1938 Traveled in Europe and encountered Western art
1939 Exhibited at the 9th Dokuritsu Art Association Exhibition and participated in the founding of the Art Culture Association
1943 Formed the Shinjin Gakai with Shunsuke Matsumoto and Ayako
1945 Lost his Nagasaki-cho studio and many works in an air raid
1947 Joined the Free Artists Association (until 1964)
1952 Taught at Musashino Art School (later Musashino Art University)
1963 Received the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize
1979 Retrospective “Saburo Aso 1934–1979” held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
1981 Retired from Musashino Art University
1983 Published “ASO 1983”
1994 Large-scale retrospective “Saburo Aso” toured the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, the Ibaraki Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, and the Mie Prefectural Art Museum (until 1995)
2000 Passed away at the age of 87
2010 Large-scale retrospective “Saburo Aso” toured the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; and the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (until 2011)
2020 “Saburo Aso: Sangenjaya 1948–1972,” commemorating the 20th anniversary of his death, held at Setagaya Art Museum

Masayoshi Nakamura
1924 Born in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture
1946 Studied under Gakuryō Nakamura; first accepted into the Nitten Exhibition and continued to receive further acceptances and prizes
1960 Served as juror for the 3rd Shin-Nitten Exhibition and exhibited “Taro and Hanako”
1961 Moved to Hosoyama, Kawasaki in January; left the Aono-sha group and withdrew from the Nitten in May
1964 Created a five-part “Genpei Naval Battle Picture Scroll” for Masaki Kobayashi’s film “Kwaidan” (Collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo); began research on Sharaku
1970 Published the results of his Sharaku research in “Sharaku” (Nobel Shobo)
1974 Held the 1st “Ju-ten” exhibition at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi and formed the Ju-kai group
1975 Founded the Tokyo Exhibition Citizens’ Committee and served as its secretary general; the 1st Tokyo Exhibition (Metropolitan Art Exhibition) was held
1977 Passed away from lung cancer on April 16 at the age of 52
1980 NHK “Sunday Art Museum: Myself and Masayoshi Nakamura” broadcast / “Masayoshi Nakamura: The Heretical Genius” exhibition at Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History
1988 His Kawasaki residence opened as the “Masayoshi Nakamura Museum”
1993 NHK “Sunday Art Museum: The Departure of Contemporary Nihonga — Masayoshi Nakamura” broadcast
1997 The “20 Years After His Death: Masayoshi Nakamura” exhibition toured Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History, Kawasaki City Museum, and Niigata City Art Museum (February–July)
1999 NHK “New Sunday Art Museum: Dear Masayoshi Nakamura” broadcast
2005 TV Tokyo “The Giants of Beauty” aired the episode “100 Self-Portraits”
2011 “The Enfant Terrible of Nihonga: Masayoshi Nakamura — A New Comprehensive Perspective” held at the Nagoya City Art Museum and Nerima Art Museum
2012 Documentary film “A Journey Around My Father: The Life of the Eccentric Nihonga Painter Masayoshi Nakamura” released
2025 “Masayoshi Nakamura: 100th Anniversary — His Heat and Vortex” to tour Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History, Hiratsuka Museum of Art, and Nara Prefectural Museum of Art

Tatsuoki Nambata
1905 Born in Asahikawa, Hokkaido; moved to Tokyo with his family the following year
1926 Entered the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University (withdrew in 1927)
1928 Introduced to Riichiro Kawashima by Kotaro Takamura and studied under him
1929 Exhibited and was accepted at the 4th Kokugakai Exhibition
1935 Formed the avant-garde art group “Form”
1937 Participated in the founding of the Free Artists Association and continued to exhibit through its 23rd exhibition
1946 Participated as a committee member in the founding of the Japan Art Association
1953 Joined the Japan Section of the International Art Club (headed by Taro Okamoto)
1956 Exhibited in “World Contemporary Art Exhibition”
1963 Exhibited in “Trends in Contemporary Painting” at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1973 Exhibited in “The Development of Postwar Japanese Art — Diversification of Abstract Expression” at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1974 Second son, Fumio, died in the Seto Inland Sea at age 32; the following year, his elder son Norio also passed away
1978 “Tatsuoki, Norio, and Fumio Nambata” exhibition held at the Ikeda Museum of 20th Century Art
1982 “The Poet of Forms: Tatsuoki Nambata” held at the Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art and the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art
1987 “Contemporary Artists: Tatsuoki Nambata” held at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1988 Awarded the 29th Mainichi Art Prize
1996 Honored as a Person of Cultural Merit
1997 Passed away from pneumonia in Setagaya in November at the age of 92
1998 Nambata Tatsuoki and Fumio Memorial Museum opened in Toyama City
2001 “Tatsuoki Nambata: 100th Anniversary — The Man and His Art” held at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
2016 “Trembling Blue — The Abstractions of Tatsuoki Nambata” held at the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
2019 “115th Anniversary: Tatsuoki Nambata with Tamako Kataoka” held at Kushiro Art Museum, Hokkaido
2025 “Tatsuoki Nambata” to be held at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery