Teiji Takai

Teiji Takai (高井貞二, Takai Teiji, February 5, 1911 – June 26, 1986) was a Japanese painter who first came to prominence as a Surrealist in the 1930s. After WWII, Takai moved to the United States in 1954 and established himself as an Abstract Expressionist painter. Takai later created semi-figurative works with simple motifs such as fish and birds. Takai’s works are held in major museum collections including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana, among other venues.

Biography

Early life and career (1911–1945) Born in Osaka City, Takai moved to Kōyaguchi-chō, Ito District (now Hashimoto City), Wakayama Prefecture, when he went a primary school. He began to study oil painting while he was in Ito Junior High School in Wakayama. After graduating from junior high school, while working at his uncle Chōichi Inoue's Japan Air Transport Institute, he attended the Shinanobashi Institute of Western Painting, where he was taught by Narashige Koide, Jūtarō Kuroda, Katsuyuki Nabei, and others.

In 1930, Takai moved to Tokyo. In the same year, at the age of 19, his Civilization (Bunmei) was selected for the 17th Nika Exhibition. The current location of this memorable work is unknown, but the reproduced image shows the strong influence of Harue Koga, with its depictions of ships, factories and aeroplanes, which are reminiscent of Koga's The Sea (Umi). In 1931, Takai co-founded the New Oil Painting Group (Shin abura-e no kai 新油絵の会) and held a group exhibition at the Shiseidō Gallery. In 1938, he co-founded the Ninth Room Society (Kyū-shitsu kai 九室会) with Yuki Katsura, Yoshishige Saitō, Takeo Yamaguchi, Jirō Yoshihara, among others. At the time, Takai's work was generally characterized by dynamic gestures and rich colors. However, from around 1961, a gradual change in style began to appear. Broad blank spaces and silences began to appear on his canvas. Takai's 61–4 (1961) and in Aka (1963) were acquired by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Later years (1963–1986) From around 1963, in a dramatic change from his previous Abstract Expressionist paintings, Takai began to paint semi-figurative motifs such as fish, birds, butterflies, plants, the sun, shellfish, horses and people. In his first series of fish, for example, the boldly deformed fish are depicted in clear colors and large sizes that take up much of the picture plane.