元永定正 MOTONAGA Sadamasa 1922–2011
1922年(大正11)、三重県阿山郡上野町に生まれる。商業学校を卒業後、働きながら漫画を雑誌に投稿。一時大阪の中之島洋画研究所に通い、後には郷里の洋画家、濱邊萬吉に師事。1953年(昭和28)より抽象画の制作を始め、1955年(昭和30)、具体美術協会に参加。水や煙などを使った作品を発表。その後、絵具の流動性を応用した抽象絵画を制作。1966年(昭和41)、ジャパン・ソサイエティの招聘で渡米、エアブラシを使用しながら明快な形態を描く作風へと大きく変化する。三重県立美術館、西宮市大谷記念美術館、広島市現代美術館などで個展。また、1970年代より絵本を多く手掛ける。2011年(平成13)、88歳で死去。
(大阪新美術館建設準備室ホームページより引用)
Born in Mie Prefecture in 1922, died in 2011 at the age of 88. After finishing commercial school, Motonaga began working full-time and changed jobs frequently. Meanwhile, he contributed manga works to magazines and studied art at Nakanoshima Western Painting Research Institute and then under Mankichi Hamabe, a Western-style painter in his hometown. Motonaga turned to abstraction in 1953 and joined the Gutai Art Association in 1955. As a Gutai member, he employed water for the outdoor exhibitions and smoke on the stage, and explored drip paintings. In 1966, Motonaga was invited to the United States by the Japan Society. During the trip, he radically changed his painting style, and clear forms by airbrush appeared in his canvas. From the 1970s onward, Motonaga produced a number of children’s books. Numerous solo exhibitions including the ones at Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Otani Memorial Art Museum in Nishinomiya (Hyogo) and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.