03-07-200803-08-2008
Skinner Auctions
Skinner AuctionsBoston MA
2399Boston
March 7, 2008 12:00 PMCalender
857

Paul T. Nagano (American, b. 1938) Admiring the Cherry Tree-South End

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$2,370$2,000
Auction: American & European Works of Art - 2399Location: BostonDate / Time: March 07, 2008 12:00PM

Description:

Paul T. Nagano (American, b. 1938)

Admiring the Cherry Tree-South End
Signed and dated "Nagano 88" l.l., titled and identified on a label affixed to the
reverse.
Watercolor on paper, sheet size 30 x 22 1/4 in. (76.2 x 56.5 cm),framed.
Condition: Not examined out of frame.
N.B. The Western and Eastern influences of Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, and Japanese Nanga or 'literati' painting have guided Boston watercolorist Paul T. Nagano's work for the last forty years. As a Hawaiian-born Japanese-American artist, Nagano thinks of his work, which is mostly inspired by nature, as 'an expression of the synthesis of East and West that I am myself.' Of Matisse's influence, he notes: '…by the end of [Matisse's] career, he had distilled the visible world into the most elemental of simple lines and shapes and colors. For me, it seems to have been an opposite journey.' The present work is depicted in Nagano's impressionistic style. The artist is intimately familiar with the subject, both as a specific kind of landscape (i.e. tropical) and a particular locale. Nagano trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and was the director of the Pucker/Safrai Gallery, Boston for over two decades. His works are held in the collections of the Neka Museum, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Boston Public Library, among others.
Estimate $1,800-2,200

Keywords

Paul T. Nagano, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, director , Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pucker/Safrai Gallery, Philadelphia, Ubud, Boston Public Library, Indonesia, Neka Museum, Kansas City, Missouri, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art