PRESENTER:

When you see something as huge as this piece by Hidai Nankoku in a museum, do you ever find yourself wondering how it came to be here?

Nankoku was a Japanese artist trained in traditional calligraphy. Later, he would push calligraphy to its limits, blurring the lines between this historic practice and more contemporary abstract painting. He often had an audience, creating many of his pieces, including this one, in public, sweeping a large mop-like brush across a canvas on the ground, conjuring up these brand-new symbols that bore no relation to existing characters.

Lesley Ma, curator of ink art at M+, tells us how, a few years ago, she visited the artist’s family and discovered this piece.

LESLEY MA:

So, it's just a very simple Japanese house. And, you know, we took the train from Tokyo, went to Yokohama, walked through the tourist sort of area and then get to this backstreet, I actually remember it was a very cold day, but sunny and then, they led me to the garage where most of the works are stored. So, they pull out this folded piece of paper. So, it's folded, so it's kind of misleading. I thought, okay, it's not really that big, but in the end it was a huge piece, and, there it is! And it's really this amazing piece. I just remember being cold and, like, on the floor and unfolding this. And I actually remember on that back side of this folded painting, I saw some footprints, like, you know, dusty sand and, you know, it's really something in their garage for a while.

PRESENTER:

Lesley’s quest had paid off, and now this incredible piece, found hidden away at the back of that garage in Yokohama, is on display for everyone to enjoy. When the work was finally examined by M+ conservators, it had one more secret to give up…

LESLEY MA:

And then on the back of this gigantic work, they found some pencil marked writings, there’s some Japanese characters written. And then at the very end of the writing, there's a miniature replica of the exact work. And then it was signed Nankoku in the Kanji characters. So, we were all eager to know what the other Japanese characters were about, so we consulted our colleague Ikko Yokoyama, and she wrote back, ‘Oh, this is cute. Quote: ‘You should consider how to hang the work on the wall without getting crinkled. Nankoku’.

So, basically, he's telling us that, you know, this is which side is up. I thought that was a message from the artist to us that we are now fully responsible for this, and the piece that you're looking at is without wrinkles and the right side up.

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