ゲニウス・ロキを巡って、エゴン・シーレ vs 亜 真里男

Genius loci: Egon Schiele vs Mario A

I develop strong emotional feelings to every artist who creates or reflects “la condizione umana”. In addition to Hans Bellmer or Otto Dix or Pierre Bonnard, Egon Schiele is also among my “genius loci”. Namely more about the ‘mental space’, in which their works occupy my brain, make me think, elaborate. It has been proven that there are numerous parallels between me and Egon Schiele. To write down an analytical art criticism of Egon Schiele’s Gesamtkunstwerk here would be presumptuous, since excellent texts have already been written worldwide.
See for example:
http://www.egon-schiele-jahrbuch.at/images/pdf/EGON%20SCHIELE%20JAHRBUCH,%20Band%20I,%202011.pdf
It would also go beyond the scope of this blog concept.
My attentive readers know about my artworks, consequently a bridge to Egon Schiele is mentally established. This associative curatorial practice naturally involves a new form of perception, as I often track down unknown works. A luxury art experience that costs the reader no money. In the contemporary context, I try to introduce the artist personally.
On the basis of my Japan-related artistic practice, a new perspective on Schiele’s can be opened, precisely because we both possess similar, analytical perspectives regarding humanity. Not to overuse the word “genius loci”, because it implies also the artist’s habitat: Schiele = Vienna, Me = Tokyo, I also find affinities to the concept of “spiritus loci”. Here, the mental leap, the connotation associated with the Japanese contemporary elitist art center can be pretty easily noticed.
On the human scale, for the artist it’s more or less about survival in a foreign but cosmopolitan, expensive Megapolis, which embodies the paradox allure of Contemporary Chaotic Charming Tokyo.
The existential, philosophical relationship between me and Japan, which one has grown fond of.
Since as a “Japanese” artist (nota bene: an artist from Japan) I also carry 500 years of “European” oil painting history on my shoulders, the scope of my influential work takes on a fateful component of Japanese art history.

Me, being part of Japanese art history.

May I quote art critic ICHIHARA Kentaro “Mario A. An Artist of Japan as an Eternal Revolutionary” and the late art critic NAGOYA Satoru “Mario A, one of the most brilliantly gifted–or perhaps I should say, the single most brilliantly gifted––oil painting artist in Japan”.
美術批評家 市原研太郎 「マリオ・A　永久革命家としての日本のアーティスト」,
美術批評家 名古屋覚により「日本で最も優れた油彩を制作する画家の一人、いや唯一の一人」.

In this context, the allegorical comparison to the above mentioned artists helps. The love towards Japonisme, the love about oil painting, the respectful love and appreciation of the (complicated) Human Experience. Monocausalities are deliberately scrambled to create a tension.
The artist embedded in self-consciousness. With all imaginable philosophical facets, innate sensuality, affectionate transference and eroticism included.
This is me. This is what I create.
Tokyo, 2023
Mario A 亜 真里男