An Apple Exists on Top of a Pot

An Apple Exists on Top of a Pot (1916) by Kishida Ryūsei is an oil painting on board, 40 × 29.5 cm, which is now housed in the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. The overall composition is simple and clear, with a single red apple resting on the mouth of a large, dark ceramic pot, and a textured cloth serving as the background. Yet Kishida's common objects are a rather intense exploration of the presence and existence of materials. The round shape of the apple and the weight of the pot and the folds in the cloth are faithfully captured, giving the impression that the objects have a substantial weight. The muted earthy tones of their colors also direct the viewer's focus to their textures and forms. This is a significant moment in Kishida's painting career, stemming from the era the painting was made. In 1916, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and was advised to cease his outdoor sketching and start painting still-lifes. He also met with copies of the works of the masters of Europe, such as Albrecht Dürer, who encouraged him to think about the nature of his own painting and to create a very realistic style, but with great detail. Atsushi Tanaka sees this short span of time (1916-17) as an important turning point in Kishida's career, and this painting as one of the paintings in which Kishida discovered a new sense of reality. But it isn't only a realistic work. Adds an unusual element to an everyday arrangement, when an apple is balanced on the mouth of a pot, there is a touch of the strange and almost the metaphysical. Kishida became more fascinated by the enigma of the very existence of things, shifting his focus from the beauty of things that can be seen, to what he saw as an underlying, spiritual or "ideal" beauty. What is important is that it isn't just a still life but rather the thinking about life that is offered. It represents a pivotal work in Kishida's life during which the west-influenced strict realism and his own search for a deeper understanding of what constituted an object, merged together and is a valuable work in the evolution of modern Japanese painting and Kishida's own change.