Size: F15 (25.7 × 20.9 inches / 65.2 × 53.0 cm)
Year of production: 2026
Materials: Acrylic gouache, varnish, canvas

"Four Seasons" - Hiroko Saegusa - Artwork Description

This is a vibrant work where passionate pinks and deep blues merge across the entire canvas, with subtle hints of yellow and light blue light shining through. Like the changing seasons, the bands of color that traverse the screen evoke a continuous flow of time.

Composition and Matière Vertical brushstrokes layer colors like strata, over which black lines and drips gently arc, enveloping the canvas. This circular movement is a recurring motif in Saegusa's previous works, but in this piece, it is calmer, swirling gently from the left side of the canvas as if seasons are turning. Within the layers of color, traces of dry brushwork and paint abrasions can be seen, visually expressing the passage of time and the sense of wear and tear.

Color Contrast Passionate and life-affirming pink-red hues subtly vie with tranquil and introspective navy-blue hues on the left and right sides of the canvas, with touches of yellow light peeking through in between. This coexistence of warm and cool colors can be interpreted as a condensation of the contrasting seasonal feelings of spring/summer dynamism and autumn/winter stillness within a single frame. The black line work, in turn, seems like the very timeline that stitches together these shifts in color, or perhaps the trajectories of people repeating encounters and partings.

Theme As the title "Four Seasons" suggests, this work depicts the cycle of nature's seasons, likened to the fluidity of society and human relationships. Despite the constant cycle of encounters and partings, growth and decline, the cycle itself perpetually regenerates life and society—such a universal rhythm where the individual and the world, nature and society resonate, is expressed through the layering of colors and the circular movement.

While an intense interplay of colors, this work, which carries a warm, somewhat nostalgic quality, can be said to embody Hiroko Saegusa's unique cyclical worldview that affirms change itself.

Artist's Comment
The changing seasons symbolize the fluidity of society and the encounters, partings, and regenerations of people. This work depicts the constant change and
circulation of nature and society, the individual and the world.