Rider (benzaiten music goddess)

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Rider (benzaiten music goddess)

Artist Gajin Fujita (American, born 1972)

Date2017

DimensionsPainting: 10 × 8 × 1 1/2 in. (25.4 × 20.3 × 3.8 cm)

MediumSpray paint, paint markers, platinum, 12k white gold on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Art Acquisition Endowment Fund

Object number

2018.13

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02A, Wolfe

Label TextSmall in scale, Rider features iconography and imagery that typify Fujita's practice: a stylized dragon, a Japanese goddess, and allusions to music. Here, Benzaiten, or Benten, Buddhist goddess of music, wears headphones while holding a biwa, a four-stringed Japanese lute. The instrument is emblazoned with the brand name Fender, famous maker of electric guitars. Creating complex and ambitious paintings that range in scale from diminutive to mural-size, Gajin Fujita takes inspiration from traditional Japanese iconography, urban street life, and popular culture. Merging these diverse influences, he has created a body of work unified by a remarkable visual vocabulary that is uniquely his own. Fujita uses a stable of materials and methods, including spray paint (applied loosely and through intricately hand-cut stencils), paint markers, and gold leaf.