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■「犬」と「点」 l975年に、私はユーゴーのリュブリヤナ国際版画展に審査員として参加した。審査は投票とディスカッションによって進められたが最後の大賞候補として、ロン･キタイと松本旻の両氏にしぼられた。それまでの投票では圧倒的にキタイ氏のリードが続いたが、大賞決定の最後のしぼった投票では、松本さんの逆転ということになった。シウルがかった集合表現のキタイ氏の作品は、華やかに多弁であったのに対し、松本さんのドットを打つ風景は、地味で寡黙であった。しかし、しぼり上げてきた時に、版に対する松本さんの思考の深さが次第に審査員たちの心を支配したのである。この国際審査とは別に、スロベニア地区できめる独自の賞があり、松本作品がその最も比重の高い批評家賞を与えられたことも、このことを物語っているであろう。その後も私は松本さんの作品を見るにつけ、版をめぐってさまざまな表現について考えさせられ、そしてなによりも深く感じさせられてきた。 さて今度、松本さんから「犬」という写真集を送っていただいた。これはリュブリヤナ受賞の翌年から、二年にわたって世界の各地をめぐって撮った旅の記録である。しかしそれは叙述するといったものではない。松本さん自身、それがどこの国のどこの場所かなどは覚えていないといっているのである。自らの中にたくわえられた旅といったものを、あらわし得ていればそれでいいのであろう。 旅の直接の記録として、松本さんは交叉させた線を引き、その交点に旅の日を追って点をつけてゆく「点々録」を作っているが、この写真の中には必ず犬がおり、それを日を追って打つ点と同じようにとらえていると思われてならない。犬はどこの国のどこの場所にいってもいるものであり、それをポイントとして、媒体として、さらにつめていえば版として、旅の意味をあらわそうとしたのではないであらうか。若侍が決闘にのぞむ時、その師が、果し場にいって、蟻がいるのを見つけたらきっと勝つと教えたという昔話しがある。蟻はどこにいってもいるものであり、それを暗示的な勝機への媒体とした正に凡にして非凡な教えなのである。私はこの「犬」の写真集をめくり、まためくっては溜息をつくのである。そういえばまたリュブリヤナのことだが、審査が終り審査員たちはほっとしてホテルにもどってきた。ところがドック･ショウに出演する犬たちが集ってきていて、ワンワン、キャンキャンの喧燥を極めているではないか。私たちはレストランの片隅でひっそりとコーヒーを飲みながら、この社会主義国らしからぬ情景を見ていたが、今思えばこの犬たちも松本式の点の犬だったのかもしれない。(埼玉県立近代美術館館長) About "Dogs" and "Dots" by Masayoshi Homma In 1975, I was invited to Yugoslavia to participate as a judge at the international print exhibition in Ljubljana. The judging process involved a series of votes punctuated by discussions among the judges, and finally the candidates for the Grand Prize had been narrowed down to Ronald Kitaj and Akira Mat-sumoto. Throughout the previous balloting, Mr. Kitaj had maintained a sizable plurality, but Mr. Matsumoto scored a surprising victory on the final ballot. While Mr. Kitaj's surrealistic works of collective expression were brilliant arid loquacious, Mr. Matsumoto’s landscapes of dots were plain and reticent. Nevertheless, when the final vote was taken, the depth of Mr. Matsumoto's conception of the art print swayed the hearts of the judges. In addition to the international competition, there were separate prizes to be awarded by the Slovenia region, and the fact that Mr. Matsumoto was awarded the Critics' Prize says much about the impact of his work on the judges. In the ensuing years, whenever I have had the opportunity to look at Mr. Matsumoto's work, I have been stimulated to appreciate the diversity of his approaches to the art print and of his modes of expression, and have always been deeply moved. Well, returning to the subject at hand I was presented with a copy of Mr. Matsumoto's photographic essay entitled "dog'" l This collection of photographs, taken by him in the year or so following his receipt of the Ljubljana prizes, is a sort of record of his travels in various parts of the world during that period. However," dog" is not a narrative nor a realistic description of his travels. Mr. Matsumoto himself says that he does not recall exactly where at which locale in which country he took these photographs. It is sufficient that they represent a journey that has been preserved deep within the artist himself. As a direct record of his travels, Matsumoto draws grids, and at the points of intersection, following the days of his travels, he places dots to create a pointillistic record. In each photograph a dog always appears, although this should be thought of in the same way as the dots recording the passing of time. Dogs can be found in every locale in every country, and with the dogs acting as points, as artistic catalysts if you wish, to make a long story short, aren't they representing the meaning of travel when they appear in prints? There is an old story about a sword-fighting master who tells a young disciple that if he arrives at the field of battle and finds ants on the ground, his forces will surely be victorious. Well. ants can be found almost everywhere, so using them as a catalyst for suggestive victory is at once a truly ordinary yet extraordinary teaching. As I turn each page of "dog', I am again and again overwhelmed by the photographs. I remember one more thing worth mentioning here, and that also occurred at Ljubljana. After the judging was over, we were all much relieved and returned to our hotel. To our great surprise, we found the canine entrants in a local dog show gathered with their masters, and the hotel Iobby presented a chaotic scene of yelping and barking. Drinking coffee quietly in one corner of the hotel restaurant, we observed this most unsocialist of happenings to see in a socialist country, and as I recall this incident now', perhaps those dogs were some of the dots in Mr. Matsumoto's prints. (Director of the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) |