Kazuo Nakamura

Kazuo Nakamura

Kazuo Nakamura (1926-2002) Biography

Kazuo Nakamura was an internationally recognized Canadian abstract painter, widely noted for his application of rigorous mathematical structure to his depictions of both landscapes and more abstract visuals.

Born in Vancouver in 1926, he largely taught himself how to paint landscapes when, at 15, he was forcibly relocated to the Tashme internment camp, where he worked by day, attended high school classes at night, and kept painting on weekends. He and his family eventually settled in Toronto, and Nakamura enrolled in Central Technical School, graduating in 1951.

In October 1953, Nakamura took part in “The Abstracts at Home,” a seminal show held at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, which ushered a new era in Toronto painting. The meetings between the avant-garde artists who participated in the show gave rise to Painters Eleven, a group of artists that exhibited together throughout the 1950s, unified by a shared commitment to modernism and abstraction. Nakamura’s paintings contrasted, however, with the largely abstract-expressionist work of his colleagues in their commitment to structure and form over more individualistic self-expression. Critics and scholars such as Bryce Kanbara draw an arc of progression from Nakamura’s early landscape works, which adhere enthusiastically to mathematical techniques such as linear perspective, to his later more abstract works, which often work mathematically towards unveiling patterns that exist in the natural world. On Nakamura’s significance to future generations of Japanese Canadian artists, Louise Noguchi has said, ‘Kaz’s presence on the Canadian art scene made it feasible to imagine that other Nikkei artists could become recognized in both the Japanese Canadian community and in mainstream Canadian society. Kaz validated the idea of being an artist in the community. Perhaps it wasn’t such a crazy endeavour."

Selected Exhibitions:
2004 Kazuo Nakamura: A Human Measure, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
2002 The Method of Nature, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa (touring Confederation Art Centre, Charlottowne; Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton)
1999 Translinear, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, ON
1984 Toronto Painters of the Sixties, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
1979-81 Painters Eleven in Retrospective, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, and Canadian tour
1980 A Canadian Survey, Imperial Oil Collection, circulated by the Art Gallery of Ontario
1975 Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery, Oshawa, (touring Musee D’Art Contemporain, Montreal; London Public Library & Art Gallery, London; Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax; Rodman Hall Art Center, St. Catherines; Agnes Etherington Art Center, Kingston
1972 Toronto Painting 1953-65, National Gallery of Canada & Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Ontario Society of Artists 101st Exhibition, Toronto, ON
1971 Painters Eleven – 1953 to 1960, Robert Mclaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, ON
1970 Loeb Collection, Traveling Tour
1968 Canadian Artists ’68, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
Seventh Biennial of Canadian Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
1967 Centennial Exhibition of Canadian Prints and Drawings, Australian Tour
Sculpture ’67, Toronto, ON
1963 Recent Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1956-57 Canadian Abstract, Smithsonian Tour, U.S.A.
1956 Canadian Abstract Paintings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
1955 First Biennale, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
1954 Roberts Gallery, Painters Eleven, Toronto, ON

Selected Collections:
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba
Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, N.B.
London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario
Hamilton Art Gallery, Ontario
Kitchner-Waterloo Art Gallery, Ontario
Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario
Zacks Collection Art Gallery of Ontario
Douglas Duncan Collection
Loeb Collection
Toronto Dominion Bank Collection, Toronto
Imperial Oil Collection, Toronto

Artist Specialization: Analytical Abstraction - From his early stylized landscape paintings, Nakamura moved towards more abstract compositions, which represented his interpretations of the “universal patterns” found in nature as predicated by science. Nakamura's work often conveys a calm, meditative quality, which he maintained in his abstract paintings of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as in his landscapes, and subsequently his “number structure” works. For the last 25 years of his life, Nakamura concentrated primarily on exploring number structures. Nakamura considers this work to be his most original and important contribution to the world of fine art.