Woman in Chair

Osuka Tsutomu was enamored of the tactile sensation of clay when he first handled it at the Tokyo High School of Craft and Design, and this led him to study sculpture further under Tatehata Taimu at Tokyo Fine Arts School. He primarily exhibited sculpture at the Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition), focusing on the female form. Day-to-day interactions and conversations with models during life-drawing sessions were crucial to Osuka’s process. He often depicted women seated in chairs, as in this work, in a manner that demonstrated his strong compositional skills and straightforward, aesthetically pleasing modeling approach. He stated: “I sculpt what I see and what I feel. There’s no need for flamboyant poses,” and “I don’t see a need to overthink things. I just want to render what I see and feel in tangible form. I suppose you could describe my approach as naturalistic.” (H.M.)