Hokkaido in Abstraction
Blog post description.
Hanada Kazuharu is renowned for his works depicting the natural landscapes of Hokkaido with simple, vivid color blocks. After graduating from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, he worked in Tokyo as an abstract painter. Following two years of study in Northern Europe and Italy, he returned to Sapporo in 1974 to settle permanently. His work has been deeply influenced not only by American Hard-Edge art but also by Fukuda Heihachiro. While his subjects draw from Hokkaido's landscapes—the coastal scenery near Otaru, the triangular mountain west of Sapporo, and even the view from the small window of his studio—his depictions emphasize abstract formal relationships rather than literal representations of nature, imbuing the interplay between form and reality with his distinctive artistic flair.
Hanada's works create a space for inference between natural landscapes and geometric color blocks. Winter (Fuyu, 2000) is similar to the artist's other work, Sea and Rocks (Umi to Iwa, 1999), sharing the core theme of rocks in the sea. The irregularly shaped rock in the center resembles a flat, standing surface, but the triangular edges on either side fold it into an angle that overlooks the sea's surface. These triangles may suggest a giant rock on the shore, but they primarily highlight the white center, beautifully creating an image of the seaside enveloped in cold air. Another print work, Snowy Day (Yuki no Hi, date unknown), depicts a scene of heavy snowfall throughout the day. However, the image does not directly depict the snow; instead, it uses dots, lines, and planes arranged in a rectangular grid to represent the form of snow and imply the passage of time. Spatially, the solid square in the center resembles artificial structures embedded within the divided composition of the snowy landscape, suggesting that this is not an outdoor snow scene, but a town surrounded by snow.
The interpretation of "a town surrounded by snow" might present itself as one explanation. Yet, even as the artist assigns distinct landscape attributes to the color blocks to reach this exact conclusion, he simultaneously and deliberately blurs our visual recognition and focus, actively destabilizing the very clarity he just established. In Sky 1 (Sora 1, 1988), the contours of two triangles are carefully adjusted to present the mountain shape he desires. They represent the Triangular Mountain and Oku-Triangular Mountain near Sapporo City, but the artist instead directs our attention to the shape of the sky divided by the mountain contours. This shift in focus immediately flattens the conventional foreground-background relationship in landscape painting, reducing it to arranged color blocks on the canvas. Another work, Spring Waves (Haru no Nami, 1994), depicts the waves along the coast of Otaru. The waves in the painting lack color gradients and are outlined with yellow lines like a golden lining. The artist achieves the dynamic movement of the waves pithily through the arrangement of horizontal lines and the volumetric quality of the wave crests. This flat, decorative sea surface sometimes resembles mountains, and the artist did not deny that he indeed intended this effect.
Not only in terms of subject matter, but Hokkaido has also become a distinctive grayish-white tone in Hanada's works, achieved through monochromatic tones and the juxtaposition of colors, all of which are combined with composition to create an atmosphere enveloped in tranquility. These tones are the result of his long-term experimentation. Early examples can be seen in works with square-divided compositions such as Beret II (Berē II, 1975), Red Gear (Town) (Akai Haguruma (Machi), 1979), or Moonlit Night (Tsukiyo, 1983–1984). In later works such as Untitled (Mudai, 2008), the composition resembles a view of an outdoor landscape. The combination of a rectangle topped with a white semicircle is the artist's signature symbol for depicting snow-covered roofs. The green window frames divide the composition, while the pale yellow sun and various shades of blue effectively convey the desolate atmosphere of a cold daytime scene. These colors themselves are slightly grayish, and the houses on the left appear to be separated by a sheet of glass, presenting uneven contours, with the glass also revealing the gray beneath these colors. Another work, The Coast of the Sea of Okhotsk (Ohōtsuku no Umibe, 1998), is a slightly different example. Japan and Russia have territorial disputes in this sea area, and this work is similar to Winter, with the composition resembling a map. However, the shores on either side of the lower part of the composition resemble the silhouettes of opposing figures. This illustrates how artificial borders are projected onto the natural sea surface, with the arrangement of colors seeming to exoticize this boundary.
Hanada Kazuharu began using his friends and family as subjects in the 1990s. Including his later works featuring flowers, these pieces moved away from his earlier hard-edged style, yet they are still deeply imbued with Hanada's distinctive Hokkaido colors. These color tones distinguish his works from those that capture the fleeting expressions of passersby, instead embedding the expressions of his friends and family firmly within the backdrop of Hokkaido's daily life, endowing the scenes with a certain timeless emotional quality. The contours of these figures resemble the artist's linear style from his time at the Tokyo University of the Arts under the guidance of Ryōhei Koiso. However, the approach of using brushstrokes to express the texture and sensory qualities of objects has, after decades of endeavor, evolved into more vibrant and expressive abstract color blocks.
In modernism, the language of form is considered to have its autonomy and rules, and abstract forms are seen as a further development beyond representation. However, when Hanada Kazuharu employs this style to depict Hokkaido and his beloved family and friends, he instead illustrates the universality of abstract expression from the angle of local color. He uses abstract forms to fathom the unique emotional texture of Hokkaido's landscape, and this uniqueness of emotion and experience is precisely what contemporary art urgently seeks to pursue and express. His works distance themselves from naturalistic regionalism, yet in the process of abstract formal thinking, his emotions toward the land and people are not simplified but rather liberated from both landscapes and formalism.
Kazuharu Hanada Sea and Rocks 1999 Oil on canvas 162.1 × 97.0 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Winter 2000 Oil on canvas 162.1 x 97.0 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Snowy Day (Navy Blue) Undated Woodblock print on paper AP 44.8 × 38.0 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada SKY 1 1988 Oil on canvas 104.0 × 259.0 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Waves in Spring 1994 Oil on canvas 130.3 x 486.3 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Beret Il 1975 Oil on canvas 90.8 × 72.8 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Red Gear (Town) 1979 Oil on canvas 181.8 × 227.3 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Moonlight Night 1983-1984 Oil on canvas 90.9 × 60.6 Photo credit: Underhill Chen
Kazuharu Hanada Okhotsk Seaside 1998 Oil on canvas 33.5 × 22.5 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Untitled 2008 Oil on canvas 100.0 x 80.3 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18
Kazuharu Hanada Untitled 1997 Oil on canvas 18.0 x 14.0 Photo credit: Underhill Chen 2021.12.18