The Wind Man

Morita Yasuji

c. 1953

A large ink on paper work in which Morita Yasuji uses flowing calligraphic brushstrokes and repeated syllabic marks to make the sound and motion of wind visible.

You are struck by tall vertical columns of bold and feathered black strokes—some wet and dense, others dry and whispery—scattered down a wide pale field so that the empty paper itself feels like air carrying a rhythmic, breath-like murmur.

Straddling traditional Japanese calligraphy and postwar abstraction, the piece turns written signs into pure gesture and helped open a path for artists to treat language, sound, and movement as visual form in the global avant-garde.

Palette

Exhibitions

Japanese Calligraphy

1954

Recent Japanese Posters from the Collection

1989

The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture

1966

Ballet Drawings by Franklin C. Watkins for "Transcendence"; Model b...

1946