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Seikichi TakaraNight Into Dayc.1980s
c.1980s
$38,850
£29,633.51
€33,817.64
CA$54,633.27
A$59,961.32
CHF 31,510.56
MX$713,527.65
NOK 402,798.55
SEK 368,078.16
DKK 252,651.37
About the Item
Night and Day is an acrylic on canvas painting by Seikichi Takara painted in the 1980s. The canvas is 50 x 60 inches and the framed dimensions are 56 x 66 inches. The art is signed lower left 'S Takara'. Framed in a contemporary, white frame.
Seikichi Takara’s Night Into Day stands as a compelling example of the artist’s mature engagement with atmosphere, transition, and the emotional registers of natural phenomena. Painted in the late 1980s—a period when his work frequently fused deep, saturated color fields with sudden flashes of gestural illumination—the piece feels anchored in Takara’s lifelong exploration of the boundary between abstraction and the sensed environment of Hawaiʻi.
The composition is dominated by an immense, velvety darkness, a near-rectangular field of black that absorbs the viewer’s gaze before yielding subtle tonal shifts and embedded textures. Rather than presenting darkness as void, Takara renders it as active, layered, and alive. The blackness recedes and advances in places, creating an effect akin to looking into a night sky or the interior of a storm, where depth is felt rather than seen.
From this darkness, bursts of color emerge, most notably the warm golds, reds, and muted whites that flare at the edges and seams of the composition. These ignitions of light appear almost geological or cosmic: a glowing crest near the top, a molten red at the lower right, a streaking vertical form that suggests a falling ember or the early ascent of dawn. These luminous passages echo Takara’s enduring fascination with transitions in nature: night turning toward day, darkness pierced by color, silence disrupted by movement. His use of color here is both restrained and dramatic, leveraging minimal points of intensity to heighten the vibrational impact of the larger field.
The border of pale neutral tones, tinged occasionally with blue, acts not as a frame but as a threshold. It gives the sense of looking through a window or across a horizon at a phenomenon unfolding before the viewer. The drips, smears, and gestural lines that interrupt the edges reinforce Takara’s characteristic interplay between control and spontaneity, evoking the unpredictable forces of weather, energy, and the natural world.
Takara’s background as a printmaker and graphic artist is also evident in the clarity of layered color and the orchestration of surface density. The painting’s textures—scumbled passages, glossy interruptions, matte absorptions—are the result of a practiced hand capable of coaxing atmosphere out of abstraction. While nonrepresentational, the work resonates emotionally with Hawaiian landscapes and skies: the slow emergence of dawn over the ocean, the faint gold of first light on volcanic rock, the deep blues that precede morning.
Ultimately, Night Into Day captures Takara’s gift for translating natural sensation into abstract form. It is a painting about thresholds—temporal, emotional, and visual. In its quiet drama and expansive darkness punctuated by incandescent color, the work exemplifies Takara’s ability to render the intangible: the moment when darkness lifts, when light first announces itself, and when the viewer feels the transition rather than simply sees it.
About the Artist:
Seikichi Takara (b.1929) is a Hawaiian American painter and printmaker celebrated for his atmospheric blend of abstraction, gesture, and nature-inspired imagery. Born on Oʻahu to parents of Okinawan ancestry, he grew up within the culturally rich environment of mid-century Hawaiʻi, where his artistic talent emerged early. A supportive teacher helped arrange his first formal classes at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, complementing his largely self-directed development.
Takara’s parallel work as a graphic artist and screen printer shaped his refined technical approach, particularly his mastery of layered color and luminous tonal transitions. By the 1960s he was exhibiting in Hawaiʻi, gaining recognition for works that merged abstract expressionist sensibilities with the moods and atmospheres of the islands. An early milestone came in 1968 when he received a public prize at the Hanalei Art Festival for his painting Erosion.
His mature style is defined by translucent fields of blues, greens, and violets, animated by dynamic linear gestures that evoke natural forces—waves, mist, wind, or celestial movement—without depicting them literally. Whether in paintings or serigraph editions, Takara’s work offers a meditative vision of nature transformed through abstraction, making him a distinctive voice in Hawaiʻi’s post-war art landscape.
- Creator:Seikichi Takara
- Creation Year:c.1980s
- Dimensions:Height: 50 in (127 cm)Width: 60 in (152.4 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Greenwich, CT
- Reference Number:Seller: ORTAK0581001stDibs: LU2664217212292
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