《Carnival》 1977

The title 《Carnival》 is named after the Christmas related festival.

Easter is an important holiday for Christians along with Christmas holiday, on the other hand, carnival, which precedes the series of events during Lent, might be rephrased in Japanese context as “shojin - otoshi” (=having meat, fish, or alcohol after the period of abstinence under Japanese buddhism) event that is brought forward.

It is one of the most human-like festivals in the Christian world, and it keeps rich and diversified regional characteristics.

The props of carnival are masks and costumes. In particular, during carnival, when wearing masks, you are comfortably allowed to transform into someone else and behave as you like.

Iwata has already introduced this mask in 《David》 《Chianti》 and《Manukan (trompe l'oeil)》. In 《David》, it is merely used to characterize a person related to the theme, but in 《Chianti》 and 《Manukan (trompe l'oeil)》, it is used to foretell the development of “Carnival”

In the sketches of “Carnival” in 1976 for this painting, there remains the grid-like auxiliary lines and perspective lines from the vanishing point, and the sketches are not completely drawn in. Except for the above, at first glance, there seems to be little of a difference between the sketches and the painting, however, further developments have actually been made to focus the viewpoints on a central point. Further improvements
have been made.