Enokura Koji
Quality of Wetness

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Artist Enokura Koji(Japanese, 1942–1995)Japanese, 1942–1995

CultureJapanese

Titles

Quality of Wetness

Date1970

Place depictedYokohama, Japan

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 11/16 × 11 7/8 in. (24.6 × 30.2 cm)
Sheet: 9 11/16 × 11 7/8 in. (24.6 × 30.2 cm)
Frame (outer) (ANW EXHIBITION FRAME): 16 5/8 × 20 5/8 × 1 3/4 in. (42.2 × 52.4 × 4.4 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment

Object number2014.682

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionAlthough he had trained as a painter, Enokura believed that previous modes of art had become invalid and thus felt the need to reconfigure his relationship with matter. He first incorporated photography into his practice as a means of documenting ephemeral installations. For his series Quality of Wetness, he focused on the penetration of a solid surface by a liquid, using water to create a rectangular form on leveled ground (2014.683) and applying industrial waste oil onto an old cement wall. He created this site-specific work, as documented with the camera, at an outdoor exhibition titled Space Totsuka 70 two years before Two Stains.
ProvenanceArtist; Toyko Publishing House, Tokyo, Japan; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 2014
Exhibition History“For A New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979 Japan,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 8–July 12, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed in pencil inside estate stamp on sheet verso: 016-019-016

Unsigned

Stamped upside down on sheet verso: A046

Stamped with estate stamp on sheet verso: SPACE 23°C / Enokura / 2012

Printed and typed label on verso mat: TPH / TOKYO PUBLISHING HOUSE / Keji Enokura / Quality of Wetness / 1970 / gelatin silver print, paper / 24.6 x 30.2 cm / 14-24, 1CHOME, KAIGAN, MINATO-KU, TOKYO, JAPAN.

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