This tondo is from Matsuyama's iconic “Fictional Landscape” series. In this piece, a contemporary women is depicted amongst flowers and animals referenced from historical paintings. The ancient Japanese expressions of "Kacho Fugetsu” (translated literally, the characters mean “Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon”, but as a single phrase can be translated as "the beauties of nature") and "Snow, Moon and Flowers” (a Japanese expression and theme in art expressing appreciation for nature) praise the beauty of the seasons, and Matsuyama references the traditional paintings of the Edo and Meiji eras which depict these ideas. On the other hand, the white dots that look like snow draw upon the physicality of the Abstract Expressionist movement born in the United States. In this way, Matsuyama fuses various techniques and aesthetic values together into one cohesive image.
The subjects depicted in his portrait works are also references, but of fashion magazine models and pin-up photographs instead. As the title of the series suggests, this is a virtual space; despite the fact that the woman is surrounded by overgrown flowers, she is portrayed relaxing in her socks as if she was indoors.
This floaty, elusive style of depiction questions the boundaries between what is real and what is not in our modern age of digitalization and informatization. By referencing historical paintings from both ancient and modern eras of the East and West, as well as the commodities which we consume daily in our current-day lives, Matsuyama is able to create completely new images which conceptually depict modern society itself. The work featured here functions as a prime example of Matsuyama’s characteristic style.
這幅圓形畫屬於松山標誌性的「虛構風景」系列,描繪了一位當代女子置身於傳統繪畫中常見的花卉和動物之中。古日文短語 "Kacho Fugetsu”(字面意思為「花、鳥、風、月」,若以一言蔽之,可譯為「大自然的美」)和「雪、月、花」(為日文短語及藝術主題,表達對大自然的欣賞)讚頌四季之美,這些意念常見於江戶時代和明治時代的繪畫之中,而今松山的作品也師法傳統畫作,刻畫了這些自然景物。另一方面,看起來像飄雪的白點洋溢活力,則借鑒了誕生於美國的抽象表現主義。松山將不同藝術技巧和審美價值融為一體,形成一個和諧統一的圖像。
藝術家的肖像作品所描摹的主體亦有用典,不過所參考的是時尚雜誌的模特兒和海報相片。正如該系列的標題所示,這是一個虛擬空間,所以,儘管女子為蓁蓁花葉所簇擁,但在藝術家的描繪下,她穿著舒適的襪子,輕鬆自若,彷彿只是置身室內。
在現今資訊發達的數碼化時代,這種飄忽難捉摸的描繪風格是對「真實」與「虛擬」的分野進行叩問。松山的作品旁徵博引,涵蓋東方與西方、古代與近代的歷史繪畫,以至日常生活中的消費商品,從概念上描繪出現代社會的特徵,創造出別樹一格的嶄新圖像。本作便是展現松山特色風格的最佳例子。