It is too late for us to be orthodox, so we have decided to try a new
approach for this exhibition. It is not such an appealing exhibition of the
painters who died young or the unknown deceased painters. We have searchedSetsuo Okada, a watercolor painter and ordinary citizen, who I think was "a common man of unusual ability" in the watercolor circles, though watercolors are neglected by the art circles because of its easy popularization.

In Japan, a watercolor is thought to be get easily by everybody like a
flower grown up in the greenhouse owing to its faint but beautiful charm and the easy handling of materials. In addition, it is considered as the primer of an oil painting, and is generally thought to be lower than an oil
painting. As I think the value of the picture doesn't depend on the materials, I can't consent to this fact; though I can't talk big, for I had
given up buying the beautiful watercolor by Laurencin at Galerie Paul
P(trides fifty years ago when I found her oil painting of the same size hung beside was cheaper by 30 percent. Watercolors by Laurencin are valued higher than her oil paintings in the international market. However, it is a matter of regret that watercolors are generally valued rather low comparing to oil paintings in Japan and the import of watercolors is extremely stagnant.

Let me return to the main topic. Most of the great artists in the world,
such as Delacroix, Rouault, Gogh, Dufy, C(zanne, Picasso, Vlaminck, Chagall and Laurencin, painted many watercolors of higher quality than oil paintings. However, in Japan, I regret only few painters, such as Tyu Asai, Hakutei Ishii, Toshio Nakanishi and Harue Koga, deserve such artists. One of them, Toshio Nakanishi, who continued to be a watercolorist through his life and painted not less important works than ones by the leading oil painters, asserted:" It doesn't matter whatever materials we use, if the finished work has picturesque beauty. Unhappiness of the watercolorists in Japan results from the fact that they evade the strict artistic quest of the painting, cater to the easy masses and are poisoned by the shallow amateurism, as long as watercolors like the traditional Japanese paintings are easy for everybody to understand and sold well when printed as postcards." I think it an excellent opinion.

Most of the works by Nakanishi, to be sure, are based on correct sketches, controlling the extreme deformation, simplifying the color field
and stressing the lines: therefore in his watercolors, I feel a kind of
massiveness superior to oil paintings. I have thought that a pure and
genuine painter must have existed, who accepted the hidden life and
continued painting without pursuing worldly things even in the Japanese
watercolor circles like this.

Four years ago I had an operation for a stomach lymph cancer by Dr.
Sasaki of Tokai University. Accidentally I came to know that his father-
in- law was a leading figure in the Japanese watercolor circles and had a
vast collection of the posthumous watercolors by Setsuo Okada. Soon I
visited the house of his bereaved family in Setagaya, and was offered all
his works over 1,000 including some large ones. After I had checked them
thoroughly for 5 days, I was startled by the consistent life of one watercolorist.

Perhaps they show the scenes a watercolorist Setsuo Okada loved, and I
don't know any other painter who can sketch the movement of such a large crowd correctly. They also show how much he loved the cities and the people, and his primitive but endlessly cheerful disposition. As I always believe that a picture shows the character of the painter himself, I have hit on a little affected subtitle "Animated Group of the People" or "Joy of Movement".

Anyhow, free from the classification of genres such as watercolor, oil
painting or print, I think Setsuo Okada was an artist who depended on the
invariable providence as a painter and continued searching the pride of a
mere watercolorist through his life without being irresolute. I considered
him as the same kind of a humane painter like Shunsuke Matsumoto, and
decided to hold this exhibition without hesitation.

I will be happy if this exhibition helps to make you reconsider the fundamental prejudice about the watercolor circles neglected in the Japanese art circles. I hope not only the devotees of the fine arts but also the people, regardless of age or sex, who admit to have no sense of the picture will come and see this exhibition from all over the country, for all the works here are easy to understand. My best wish is that you will find something to change your point of view in this exhibition.

At the end, I would like to express sincere thanks to Mr. Tetsuji Sasaki
and his wife, the widow of the late Setsuo Okada, Ms. Noriko Okada, and Ms. Yoko Tatsumi who have offered us the valuable articles left by the deceased watercolorist, and to appreciate the unexpected cooperation of the persons concerned.

( President and director)

By the way, for most of the works in this exhibition, we use the frames
for oil paintings. These watercolors have the same quality as oil paintings
owing to the original animated touches by Okada as well as composition and correct sketches. They seem to be more animated when exhibited with these frames. We have chosen the best frames for the works to be animated, regardless of the traditional ideas that the stainless steel frames should be used for the Japanese traditional paintings, or the appropriate ones forthe watercolors.

I hope you will enjoy the exhibition with interest and feel as if the
scales had fallen from your eyes.