Selected reviews for "ROLL CALL", Tokyo 1998
Reinhardt Sobye Exhibition: An Appeal for Human Rights that
Recalls a Concentration
Camp
Sobye has depicted, from the victims' viewpoint, the slaughter or expelling done
between different tribes caused by civil wars of tribal antagonism. He also has persistently expressed on his canvas anger at a social system in which the minds
of physically handicapped old men or social minorities are ignored. The artist
has gone through a full four years since he acquired evaluation in Japan. The
content of this 6th personal exhibition here includes portraits of old women who
are half-paralyzed and have difficult speaking, and representations of protest
to contemporary art that seems to have renounced the depiction of human truth.
In addition, Sobye seems not to be able to resist conjuring up memories of Nazi
concentration camps. That's because the deseases of modern society have an
origin in Auschwitz.
The exhibits are mostly portraits. Particularly, "Memories,"
in which a portrait of woman can be seen in the background of the old man
wearing prisoners clothing, produces' a space of significantly deep worry.
"Memories"is a minutely depicted portrait in gouache and pastel, and
employs a collage of cloth and other material. Its raw obsessive element has
been relieved by the spatial objectivity generated by the frame of stained
plexiglass. It is this unique manner that has drawn historical memories to us.
But, it is also true that we often cower before his pathetic look, deeply
wrinkled with impoverishment and worry. The figure is a man who is forced to
stay alive, though the arrival of his death is a matter of time. I have never
carefully experienced such a gaze as that of the old man, except in this
portrait. Here, the painter is full of anger, pondering why modern society has
produced men whose minds are ignored and infringed. He questions whether or not
the "much used autopsy table" or "prisoner's clothing" have already become only
"Memories" deprived of hatred. The emotions that are
swirling within the mind of the artist are not only the alienation of
minorities, but also anger at the suppression of human rights practiced under
the reign of the former Soviet Union, and at the commercialized art of the
capitalistic world. I would say that the portrait itself might be seen only a
Superrealist work. However, because viewers feel much sympathy with such anger
at today's society, they are possibly able to read true reality under the
surface of the portrait.
But the artist seems to be overly pessimistic--though I know that his work
places a basis on the real condition of the northern country Norway, I am sure
that the more the world of his painting comes close to the actual situation of
society the more he needs to look at the struggling minorities or hopeful
aspects of modern history, too. Otherwise, his art, I am afraid, may impress on
viewers solely a single aspect of historical evaluation.
REFERENCE FORM/LETTER OF AFFILIATION
The said applicant has a long career as a painter and some of
his works belong to also some of the national museums of art in Norway. Also in
Japan, 6 one-man exhibitions were shown in the last 4 years and his works are
highly evaluated and loved by many. He is fully qualified for the said
project.
The said applicant is a painter who paints a portrait
and natural features (a landscape)in a uniquely realistic
way, and that is characteristic of him.
His works are so unprecedented that they have been stimulating a lot the Japanese modern art.
This very person will stav and work not in Scandinavia, but in Asia, in Japan
where his works have been already highly evaluated, so that a success of this
project is promised. This success will be not only for him but also for Japan
because it is Japan that he paints in this Scandinavian unique realism.
Such a trial helps a lot for a progress of cultural and
personal exchange between Japan and Scandinavia, and should be considered very
important.
Shigeo Chiba (chief curator
of The Japan National Museum of Modern Art)