The indomitable passion of Tanaka Isson

Born in 1907, the son of a sculptor, Takashi Isson was already considered a prodigy as a child for his exceptional talent in painting. With an unconventional upbringing - Isson dropped out of the Tokyo Fine Arts School a few months after enrolling - he did not have an easy life, nor a particularly successful career as an artist. For much of his life, painting was an "indomitable passion" but his artistic practice was not enough to guarantee him a living and he had to do many other jobs to support himself, from a farmer to a worker in a fabric factory. At 50 he decided to move to Amami Oshima, a tropical island near Okinawa where he spent the rest of his life until he died at just 69 in 1977. Isson had little interest in fame and dedicated all his research to creating paintings to the observation of nature. Images immersed in a clear light, where the calm and silent atmosphere reveals the indelible splendor of his soul. A major retrospective in Tokyo celebrates his greatness.