In Toeko Tatsuno’s paintings, repeated forms and patterns generate rich spatial illusions within the two-dimensional picture plane. From the 1980s onward, Tatsuno incorporated a variety of motifs derived from everyday visual environments, including floral patterns based on photographs of the decorative cut-out designs found in New York cast-iron stair panels, as well as familiar geometric designs seen in bathroom and washroom tiles. The decorative S-shaped motif in Work 80-P-19 (1980), exhibited in Art Today ’80 at the Seibu Museum of Art, and the diamond shapes constructed from sequences of rectangular forms are representative examples of this approach.
In the present work, these repeated rectangular forms appear to dissolve into the ground, from which a new diamond-shaped spatial structure emerges. Together, the patterns create a spindle-shaped space that expands from the center of the rectangular canvas, producing multiple and shifting visual readings. The diamond form can be perceived as a solid object possessing volume and weight, yet its densely colored interior also creates a sense of depth, making it appear to recede into the deep green ground like a fissure opening within the picture plane.
Although geometric in appearance, Tatsuno’s patterns are far from mechanically repetitive. They seem to move closer and farther away, become transparent or opaque, float or sink, continually changing their visual character. Moreover, the composition lacks a fixed center and offers no explicit subject matter; significantly, all works in this series bear the neutral title Work. As a result, viewers are encouraged to look beyond the diamond shape itself and consider its relationship to the surrounding pictorial space. The painting subtly destabilizes our conventional understanding of form and space, inviting us to reconsider the very act of seeing.