California, Crystalline
The City Pop painter’s sunlit California — azure skies, cerulean pools, dappled palms — in a slim, sapphire, wordless collection.
I came across a painting that drew me quite in, thinking it was a David Hockney I had not seen before. A crystalline pool with shimmering light and shadows, framed by the white of a long, flat wall of a California house and palms. A Hockney scene and feel, if you know it. Yet, it felt evocative in a slightly different way. A little sharper in line, maybe, a little more surreal, perhaps, flashes of pointillism, I think. Different, a little more ethereal. I followed my curiosity, discovered Hiroshi Nagai, learned about the City Pop style, and landed on The Journey Begins, a collection of Nagai’s paintings.
Inspired by his travels through California (and Hockney), “the journey” is a cruise through his art and the feel of California, the impression of it. Expansive azure skies framing every scene in a way that’s almost impossibly consistent, the sharp and cool shadows cast by the beaming California sun, the dappled light and dappled palms, all set against more blue: the lapis of the Pacific, cerulean pools, cobalt shade. You can just feel the scene on your skin. You know this feeling.
It’s because the blues are so perfectly blended and graded across Nagai’s paintings that they pull you in. It’s sharpened by the palms of California, sharp lines of a chaise and an umbrella, vivid neon hues of a sunset, chrome pulling across a ’57 Chevy. Each painting is a moment you know; you’ve been there before, hyper-brilliant in your memory. This is really cool art, and an artist you should know.
The book itself is sapphire, and slim and sharp, too, like the artwork. Perhaps it’s deliberate. It’s wordless, also, just an exposition of the paintings, each a small vignette, and together a vibrant collection of Nagai’s work you’ll enjoy diving into and wanting to tell others about.
