"Silent Eyes"

  Shigeo Chiba  Sobye is an "eye" painter.  The ways to paint a human being are varied. Rather than depicting a human being itself, depicting the "environs" surrounding the person may be a way to bring a human being to the foreground. A human form may be depicted in several ways such as by detailed description of all the aspects of appearance and by separately describing a part, i.e., the face, etc. However, in any case, it is obvious that the inner figure of the human emerges in the expression of the face and the face may be the only part expressing what is in the subject's mind. Although a human can move his nose, mouth, and the skin of his face, the expression of his face means no more than the expression of his eyes. It is said that the eyes are as eloquent as the mouth, however, the eyes are actually much more eloquent than the mouth. The reason is that sometimes silence can express much more than the spoken word and hence can be expressed by the eyes but not by the mouth.
A group of Sobye's work which was recently brought to the Toho Gallery consists of paintings of children and dolls. These paintings depict the contemporary contradiction of human beings emerging on the faces of children in a form of the worst possible misery. What I want to express here has to do with what is in the eyes of children and dolls. Looking at these paintings, the eyes above all strongly gripped me and held me to them. I forgot to notice the title because the eyes kept my attention so that I could gradually understand everything.
For example, a painting of a little girl, which may be the most impressive picture, held me fast. Her hair is quite different from that of ordinary girls, rather it is like that of an adult. However, above all, the eyes were most unusual. Her eyes are not those of ordinary girls. These are not eyes wearing childish trickery which children sometimes normally wear, but they are rather pert and a little cunning, almost like adults' shifty vulpine eyes. However, it cannot be said that these eyes are completely adult ones, but "almost" At the bottom of the eyes childish innocence and clarity still remain, yet this expression is not complete because the cleanliness irradiates a strong quiet sheen which is not seen in a normal child's eyes. If white turbid material is poured into much muddy water, turbidity increases and cleanliness is decreased. However, if white turbid material is poured into clean water, the water cleanliness might normally decrease. But how should I say, because of the cleanliness a kind of fragile body emerges and the quiet sheen is revealed. In deed, a little turbidity deepens the cleanliness. This can happen.
Next, I deliberately moved my eyes to see the title: "Child Prostitute," and I understood everything. This picture depicted such eyes, so to speak, this picture was created to depict only these eyes. Sobye's surprising descriptive capability to depict the eyes can be fully appreciated in his every work. It is beyond simple realism or verism and it makes me rethink what it means to depict human beings. In retrospect, I think, in the history of paintings, the description of eyes or the "look" of eyes might be best represented by a description of the "environs". Other than depicting eyes themselves, generally human beings have been depicted by description of eyelashes, darkness around the eyes, and the mouth, wrinkled skin, distorted face, other facial environs, and so on. However, Sobye depicts directly how eyes (the look) actually are in reality. Of course he depicts facial environs and never does careless work. Rather, he does not precisely depict the environs in order to make the eyes more prominent. For example, it seems that he intentionally depicts ears very simply. Such methods are taken to increase the density of expression around the eyes. To that extent he may be confident to depict the eyes themselves. Children are especially difficult objects to paint when depending on the environs because the shadows of age and experience are only lightly engraved on their faces since their lives have been so short.
Compared with his paintings of children, I am not sure whether or not I clearly understood his doll paintings. However, in his doll paintings also, my attention goes to the eyes. Sobye uses a kind of roundabout method because the dolls' eyes are glass. In many of his doll paintings the eyes are closed or in some other paintings the eyes are not directed straight at us. In still other paintings the facial expression is made less clear by intentionally making the eyes darker. In almost all cases he does not paint dolls directly from the front. It is nonsense to depict glass eyes as glass, otherwise it is a lie if they are supposed to be human eyes. Therefore, closed eyes are depicted. Naturally, my imagination is directed beyond the closed eyes. Strangely, even though I know it is a doll, I try to see the facial expression which may exist beyond the closed eyes. Thus, it is shown that his capability of expression and method must be great. In a way Sobye depicts truly and directly children's eyes and in another way he makes doll's eyes closed as a regular tactic. His painting of closed eyes shows his ability of expression to make us feel beyond the closed eyes.
I dare to say that, the various descriptions of children's eyes may result in dolls with such closed eyes or silent eyes. I imagine that when all eyes including the pure eyes of a little Buddha, a child prostitute's eyes, and the eyes of children suffering from AIDS, are closed, what will happen with the eyes of Sobye's dolls.
While thinking about eyes, I recalled something else.
Sobye's paintings are in the form of a portrait, however, we can experience a feeling of cleanliness and depth of space which are not seen in normal portrait paintings. It can be said to be like the feeling of crystal. This is not a formative depth. It is more a psychological or spiritual depth. I suspect that the depth is derived from his eye expressions. I think Sobye's eye paintings represent a clean broad feeling as in a clear sea. It is like a spread of light from a dazzling crystal made by the eyes functioning as a core. It is like a freezing spread of tragedy, sadness, and purity existing in children's eyes. It is like a dark sea but transparent, in which children's eyes gleam. It draws me like the center of a magnetic field and the feeling spreads around me. This is certainly a picture, however, if it is described as a painted space, Sobye's painted eyes are too strong and reach too far, and in the end there is silence.
Whenever I see, for example, starved children in Africa on TV, my heart is painful with the sight of their quiet and beautiful eyes. The unusual beauty of the eyes of these children and Sobye's painted children radiate something like a glow from a far and beyond every facial expression. Sobye might catch such feelings.