Mitsuo Kano first presented his oil painting series Breast Region Work at his 1980 solo exhibition of the same title held at Akira Ikeda Gallery. Believing that painters engage not with ideas alone but with the physical properties of materials, Kano developed a highly distinctive working process centered on the materiality of paint itself. His studio was filled with jars of powdered pigments, which he mixed by hand with linseed oil and poppy-seed oil, while safflower oil was bleached in sunlight for use in oil painting.In creating these works, Kano manipulated paint using transparent plastic sheets approximately the size of a tatami mat. He applied a flesh-colored ground and, before it had fully dried, poured additional layers of paint onto the surface. By rapidly pressing, stretching, and moving the transparent sheet across the canvas, he carefully controlled the blending, drying, pooling, and settling of the pigments. The flesh-colored underlayer played a crucial role, causing the upper colors to alternately glow or recede, thereby generating a rich sense of depth.Kano also incorporated the inherent properties of his materials into the work. Linseed oil, for example, yellows when kept in darkness for long periods but regains clarity when exposed to light. Such transformations were embraced as part of the painting process itself.The movement of color across the canvas and the movement of Kano’s own body became intertwined, producing the undulating, wave-like gradations that characterize the series. The resulting paintings can be understood as a form of resonance with paint and color that transcends linguistic meaning.The origins of Kano’s distinctive sense of color can be traced to a formative childhood experience. After suddenly coughing up blood during an illness, he was struck by the vivid red that seemed to emerge from within his own body. This encounter remained a lasting source of inspiration throughout his artistic practice.The museum’s collection includes works from the Breast Region Work series characterized primarily by red, purple, and green color schemes.