It was in 1993 that I first saw the works of Osamu Fujita. I was intrigued by one of his works printed on an invitation card and as a result I visited his gallery near the ocean of Kamakura.  What I saw there were daily life scenes veiled in darkness. Observing them, youﾕd feel as if you were seeing them through the lens of a pinhole camera. For the motifs of his works, he uses classrooms, stairs, and piano, like ones youﾕd see in a closed school.  These images awoke my memory and took me back to the old days. I was also attracted to the way he captures an object.  He captures images from many points of view to describe an object. It is to my understanding that he tries to trace our visual experience. We constantly move our eyes to capture an object. I actually imagined his works to be conceptual. However, I found them more mysterious, invoking an image of something solid. The engravings by photographic plate making tend to be sentimental and symbolic, but his works are clearly different.  I wondered what causes the differences and came to the conclusion that it is the material existence of the black ink, which stands for deep darkness.  Of course, the actual darkness is not a substance, but you canﾕt describe darkness without using the black ink.

In the conventional expression premising illusion, black ink is only used to extinguish the existence and make viewers feel the space.  On the other hand, in the works by Fujita, the viewers would recognize the existence of ink as a substance as well as the existence of space.  The viewersﾕ eyes would wander in these two conflicting ways of seeing his work.  This confliction brings a kind of tension and strength to his works. It is to my understanding that he also attempts to bring the sense of substantial existence to his works by not using the photos themselves, but by transferring the image of photos into engravings instead.  How does he come up with this style? To find the answer, we have to go back to the time before he became an art student at university.

According to Fujita, his interest in substance originated from the experience of seeing works by Jasper Johns at Seibu Museum, before he entered university.  Back then, he concentrated all his energy on mastering the techniques to create pictorial illusion. For him, it was a shocking experience to see the works of Jasper Johns.  Jasper Johns insists that the paintings are only substance, nothing more or less and from this creates realistic paintings. Considering Fujitaﾕs art later, it is symbolic that Fujita got the significant influence from Jasper Johns.  In the meantime, Fujita entered Tama Art University.  Among the professors there were Yoshiaki Tono; who first introduced Jasper Johns to Japan in early 1960s, and Lee Ufan; an artist who represents ﾒartists of a substance schoolﾓ.  In these circumstances, itﾕs easy to imagine that he became more and more interested in substancism in art.  At Tama Art University at that time, however, there was no engraving major in the first year of his study, so he took a major in painting at first, and later studied engravings.

In the beginning, he was interested in Pop Art, and tried working on silkscreen, which turned out not to be satisfying for him. He gradually became interested in Modern Art and tried working on what is called soft-ground. By pressing jeans or shirts on the soft-ground and transferring it onto a copperplate, he tried to express realism. In spite of all these attempts, what he ended up settling on was the technique of expressing photographic images with solid textures that is unique to copper engraving. At that time, the techniques for photographic plate making on silkscreen was already established while the techniques for copper engraving were not. Fujita made every effort to acquire the techniques and he did.

When you see his early works such as ﾒWarehouseﾓ and ﾒSchoolﾓ, youﾕll see white space not darkness in the background.  However, in these works youﾕll see expressions unique to copper engraving such as lines and spots, which attracts the viewersﾕ eyes back to the surface of the engraving while they are trying to see the space. There youﾕll also see his techniques to reconstruct an object by using fractional images. In these works, he describes a building by combining many photos taken from different angles. Since Cubism, this technique was meant to express his personal visual experience.  You can see he was trying to use photos not as objective medians but as a tool to express subjective viewpoints. With this technique, Fujitaﾕs work gained the power to bring viewers back to the scenery in their memory.

A friendship with Ohmi Kanji was significant in Fujitaﾕs life.  Ohmi taught him about Conceptual Art and Joseph Beuys.  He started to use letters in his early works, and the combination of monochrome photos and letters is one of the characteristics of Conceptual Art.  Especially, the cross in the middle of the ﾒCornerﾓ reminds me of Joseph Beuys.  This is the reason I first imagined Fujitaﾕs works to be conceptual, but what he was trying to achieve was different.  It seems to show a significant aspect of Modern Art, different from Conceptual Art.  Fujita says he gets excited every time his works come out of the pressing machine. You can hardly predict how the work turns out.  Considering the fact that copper engraving takes a lot of accidental factors during execution, you can hardly tell how the works will turn out like until itﾕs finished. It is because various accidental factors are involved in engraving that an engraver is equipped with solid skills almost like a craft man.

Fujita says the part of engraving that demands the skill attracts him, but the process takes a lot of energy to face and fight the substance of ink and copperplate.  Fujita also says he concentrates all his energy onto expressing the complicated tones and texture of ink.   He pays attention to substantial aspect of materials and to facing it.  This has been the major theme of Modern Art since the early 20th century.

Fujita came to use a lot more black ink in his works. It was a part of his attempt to express the texture of black not only as darkness but also as substance.  His trip to France in 1996 made a huge impact on him. His friend showed him around Bourgogne. He took a photo of a chapel then and used the image in the ﾒDiaryﾓ series.  However, you donﾕt see his conventional attempt to reconstruct an object with Cubism techniques any longer.  What you see now is various images like fragmental memories appearing from darkness. One is the image of the inside of a chapel, another is a partial extended photo of a sculpture.  What he is trying to do is not to grasp an object but to express the sentimental world more freely.  On the other hand, he also executed works like ﾒ Rainﾓ and ﾒSpring Rainﾓ in which the touch like scratches take over the image and emphasize the sense of substance. Substance like ink and paper is essential in creating an image, but we donﾕt pay attention to it when we see the image.  When the image disappears, the substance starts to get visible as substance. 

Before ﾒRainﾓ and ﾒSpring Rainﾓ, he tried to bring unique tensions and strength to his works by using photos that are easy to recognize and by confronting it with engravings that express a strong sense of substance.  However, he changed his style after those works and stopped using letters in his works.  He seems to return to simpler questions; Image or sense of substance, where the critical point of the images is created.  The ﾒGroundﾓ series in 1998 excluded reproductive factors, and he concentrated only on the substantial character of the materials.  Yet we cannot but try to see concrete images such as scenery, light, or darkness. It is difficult to exclude something imaginative.  On the contrary, no matter how detailed the image is, it is almost impossible to erase the substantial character of expression media such as colors and ink. Fujita started to work on what is called ﾒphotopolymer gravureﾓ series from 2004,and the series make us think about this matter.   ﾒPhotopolymer gravureﾓ is the technique of reproducing photos vividly as well as easily.  Viewing his photopolymer gravure work, you could easily take it for a real photo.  He seems to try showing the subtle difference between photos and engravings by adopting the technique. 

Like we discussed above, we can divide his works these days into two categories, one without images at all and the other which emphasizes images.  In addition to engravings, he also paints oil paintings with a brush used to erase the image.  Seeing his works, including these oil paintings, I wonder if I can categorize him only as an engraver.  In terms of his obsession with copperplate and earnest feeling about materials, he is more likely a sculptor.  His talent and enthusiasm push him beyond the genre of engraving and into the fundamental part of art.

Watching Fujitaﾕs Art, I am often intrigued by its completed quiet world, which he expresses well enough to make me feel sacred.  No matter how hard I try to put it into words, what I feel when standing in front of his works, I end up failing (it seems no words can express it completely). There is something spiritual about his works and the beautiful deep black in his works create unique worlds, which gives me hints to express what I feel and think of his works. His works always remind me of the word ﾒsilenceﾓ. Supposing we can divide art into two groups; verbose ones and silent ones.  His worlds definitely belong to the latter.  I just want to make it clear that it doesnﾕt have anything to do with his works being black-and-white.  Artists can intend not to express their personalities plainly in their works.  However, in his well ﾐcontrolled quiet world, I can clearly sense something that is unexpressive in words. It is created by his solid skills and creativity which exceeds the skills. I have known him for a long time; we were close for some time, but there was a period we didnﾕt keep in contact with each other for a while so itﾕs not that I have witnessed him changing all the time. I met him for a photo shooting for a catalogue.  Talking to him, I felt again that he took many leaps to reach where he is and what he is today.

Osamu Fujita was born in Yokosuka in 1953, when Japan was recovering from the war.  His childhood took place during the dramatical period when the economy of Japan was rapidly growing. Except for the concerns about Vietnam War, the 1960s was known as the period of prosperity. The Japanese economy prospered and young people became hugely influenced by American culture back at that time.  When The Beatles came to Japan for the first time to play at the Budokan in 1966, a lot of people including not only people from the musical field but also in various other fields, became influenced by them. A lot of people remember the days of The Beatles. Those days, Fujita had hard times deciding which path to take; to become a musician or an artist.  In the early 1970s, when he was preparing for an entrance examination to an art university, he happened to see ﾒTargetﾓ by Jasper Johns exhibited at Seibu Museum.  In his works was expressed not illusion but a target itself.  The target is also well established as a piece of art.  Fujita instinctively understood the irony and savor of the work. The experience made a big impression on him.  The work was impressive enough to attract his attention to Modern Art very rapidly.

Pop Art, originated from New York in the 1960s, had a huge impact on artists worldwide, including young artists in Japan.  In spite of the fact that Pop Art was becoming more and more popular, it was still a hard decision. It was still not common to go to an art university.  The encounter with works by Jasper Johns might be the very first moment when Fujita took his first step to becoming an artist.

In his second year of study as an oil painting major at Tama Art University, he realized that engraving had the possibility of expressing something modern, which most paintings canﾕt, and he became interested in engraving.  An engraver needs to have the talent of an author as well as a craftman. Fujita noticed he had the capacity of being a craftman, which was unexpected to him. He became interested in wood cut and silkscreen as well, but he found engraving most interesting with more possibilities available to him.  He was also attracted to works by Pop Art artists such as Andy Warhal. In their works, you can see their attempts to use images robbed from peoplesﾕ brains. They attempt to dismiss illusion and other conventional techniques used since the Renaissance era and to bring new possibility to art.

When he graduated from university, he wondered if he should take his study to graduate level, or execute his works by himself so he took the latter choice. I donﾕt remember his works back then, but I remember seeing his work exhibited at Nichido Salon in Ginza. A reference I would say it was in 1979. I do remember the work being influenced by Pop Art and yet equipped with his own taste and talent.

In 1980s, Fujita concentrated on the technique called photo etching. He says he didnﾕt pay special attention to using photos. In his words, ﾒUsing images is not the ultimate goal itself, but just a means to create a work, on which you project yourself. One of the main characteristics of photo is subjective so it was natural for me to choose photos as one of my self-expressions.ﾓ Around this time, he started to discover works using Cubismic technique, which consists of pictures taken from different angles.  When I saw the work, it reminded me of a photo collage by David Hockney, but the meaning that the photos contain was totally different.  Hockney uses photos to record, while Fujita uses them just as materials without any meaning.

Artists tend to break pictures into pieces and then reconstruct them carefully.  It brings a new order to works and as a result balance and rhythm are created.   Around 1986, he often used buildings as objects such as warehouses, like you can see in ﾒWarehouseﾓ and ﾒSchoolﾓ. In those two works, he uses pictures taken from different angles, laps one on top of another, trying to reconstruct the shape of the building.  You can see he was still focused on the shape of an object.

Fujita happened to visit a Modern Art Exhibition at Tokyo Museum, and got the feeling that the hall would make a good match with his works, and as a result he started to exhibit his works at the exhibition and at the Japan International Art Exhibition.

In 1988, he won the special prize at Kanagawa Prefecture Art Exhibition, for ﾒCornerﾓ and ﾒCorridorﾓ. Encouraged by the warm applause from the judges as well as the prize itself, he gained confidence and began to realize that he was on the right track.  In those days, his interest shifted gradually from substances like bricks, concrete walls, and wood floors, to light and darkness.  His motif shifted to indoor scenes.   The shape of an object melting into blackness, and the light from the window and the shadow that the light creates, became a major part of his works, For him, the shape was not a significant factor anymore, but the world created by lights and shadows was.  Photo is nothing but a material, but once Fujita put his hands on it, it gives significant change to the material and creates reality as engraving.  He uses lines and droppings, which gives the organized shape to the engraving.  The character of a work changes according to how and how much an artist uses these techniques.

ﾒMeetingﾓ consists of nine photos taken from different angles, in which you can see he is interested in how to treat lights.  He uses a table and a chair to emphasize the existence of the light.  Here, by excluding the factors intentionally that are assumed to have appeared in the photos, he succeeds in establishing the images that he was looking for.  You can see this tendency more clearly in ﾒNo Remembranceﾓ and ﾒMemoryﾓ, in which all the subtle subjectivity are excluded and only the light and shadow remain.  However, you have to be aware of the existence of texture which only engraving can express, and the organized lines he creates. 

In his works there often appears words and short sentences.  The letters deepen the psychological taste of the works and guide our eyes at the same time.  He says ﾒ I used letters as graphic factors at first.  I expected it to be a guide for the viewersﾕ eyes to move.  Later, it began to have meaning. They are usually words cited from the bible, and not an explanation of the work itself.ﾓ

We can see dramatic change in his style between 1996 and 1997.  ﾒRainﾓ represents his works at this period. He uses twenty photos that he took in Bourgogne, arranges them, and covers them with lines that stand for rain. He says ﾒ What I attempted in this work is to present the sense of existence as substance by putting the texture of etching line, that is, the reality of engraving, on the virtual image of photos.ﾓ He describes this change using the word ﾒI novelized.ﾓ  He collected the part of his own actions and personal experiences and put them all together into one world.  You can see this clearly in his ﾒDiaryﾓ series.  He described this series as ﾒthe work with literatual factors which my early works lack.ﾓ  In this series, he combined fractionally what he sees and what he feels, like a collage, and pasted them together.  You will notice Fujita himself in the work, crouching. The photos used in the work can be seen as a travel sketch, not pictures taken at the same place.

ﾒGroundﾓ series in 1998 is interesting, in tracing his works, He wanted to express the image without photos but with something more fundamental, and tried something like drawing, and personal stuff on engraving experimentally.  He says he wanted to express something spiritual, something powerful to evoke memory.

He tried to express black that is ﾒ the most fundamental shape.  The black which is simple like minimal and at the same time, the spiritual deep black make viewers feel as if they were falling into it. I see the similarity between Fujita and Marco Russo, who created profound colors in his works.  You have to go back to a starting point and start over again to seize the future.  Later, he executed ﾒStayﾓ, in which he tried to get new expressions by dismissing his conventional habits, and moving away from himself, like he says, ﾒ it is developed into something like photographical blank.ﾓ

In his recent works, there is series executed with the techniques called photopolymer gravure. Photopolymer gravure is a kind of engraving executed with resin and it can be positioned between photos and engraving.  However, Fujita clearly distinguishes photos from engraving.  Photopolymer gravure needs only a one-time process of transferring the manuscript onto the canvas, and canﾕt do anything more than that.  Therefore, an artist should have a clear image to create a work.  On the other hand, when Fujita faces a copperplate, he says he sees something objective, and yet engraving can convey too much sentiment at the same time because of the copperplate; itﾕs a kind of resin and easy to deal with.  His words are interesting because it suggests that the difference of plates has power to change the character of a work. 

I previously discussed that what he has been trying to express are the lights and the shadows, but that is not all.  He expresses them in relationship with spirit, which is supported by something beyond techniques or ideas. There is no doubt that he is a splendid artist with reflexive spirit. Anyway, I would also like to mention that he is a Christian.  In his works, you can see deep spirituality, which comes from his religious beliefs.  He wishes his works to appeal to peoplesﾕ souls and make us feel sacred.

* Between engraving and art ﾒEngraving artﾓ  81   Abe Publisher 1993

The other words of the artist in this essay is from what the author heard from the artist, and what the artist wrote down.

(translated into English by Yukiko KATAYAMA)