Dominic Lutringer
Painting with light

When asked to describe his work, the Osaka-based painter Dominic Lutringer says he cannot, as there are no words for it. The word abstra-ct is “too common nowadays,” he said, “but what does abstract mean? Red is red, blue is blue, color is color. I cannot describe [my work].
I cannot speak about my work. Just come see.”

Getting to see Lutringer's work is not a problem, his latest opening in Singapore last month. It's popularity ensures there are plenty of shows and commissions — bold effusions of color pouring from organic shapes and silhouettes on canvases that range from one to three meters square make him a favo- rite among Japanese and foreign buyers. His use of acrylic is neat, calculated (at times he employs Photoshop to determine the exact placement of an element), and always inspired.

Lutringer arrived in Osaka 14 years ago from Strasbourg, France, and his first commission was in 1991, when the Osaka Hitachi office hired him to create window displays. These he constructed from cartons, around which he placed colored lights for dramatic effect. “I painted with light,” he said. “Yellow and green light do not make another color, but white … To me, this was very interesting,” he said.

In 1998, he designed the logo for the Alliance-Française's Honmachi office, and earned an invitation to exhibit work within its spacious gallery. Unsure of what to display, he let his newfound fascination with light and the abundant space within his apartment guide him.

Each of the nearly-30 canvases he produced sold, convincing him to pursue this medium. “I feel good when working with a big size,” said Lutringer, who prefers large canvases. “You are one with the work. You are outside when on the small scale.”

A Ritz-Carlton manager soon learned of Lutringer's exhibition and commissioned a warm still life for his bar. Orders from other hotels, restaurants, and private collectors followed. Lutringer's largest commission from the Japanese-owned C'est la Vie hotel chain over the years 2002 to 2004 gave him carte blanche to develop over 100 light-filled canvases.
Lutringer fondly recalls the conversation from which he would be selected for the job. “How long does an average painting take?” the hotel owner asked, to which Lutringer responded “30 years”.

Indeed, Lutringer believes that his art is an amalgam of all “things seen and experienced”. He is unable to cite a specific influence from either Eastern or Western worlds but imagines “painting is one step in a long process which we can never master,” he said. “Painting acquires its own life. The painter may be changed by each painting.” Essential to the process is

The dedication, coupled with the controlled manner in which he frames his work (Lutringer determines the frame material and dimensions himself), has required that he travel. He was in Bali in 2001, Korea in 2002, and Sydney last year and this summer to oversee a variety of exhi- bitions and unveilings. Closer to home, Lutringer has traveled to Tokyo to furnish a number of bars, as well as to Kyoto where the Westin Miyako's famous Moonlight Bar displays his work.

When asked what initially brought him to Japan, Lutringer tells about reading Yukio Mishima's The Golden Pavili-on, a fictional account of the 1950 fire, which burned down this impor-tant Kyoto monument. At the time, he was a young man in France who “liked the bold ambience of his (Mishima's) book,” Lutringer said. “I couldn't get it out of my head … I have read everything of Mishima's since.”

On graduating from high school, he bought a ticket to Tokyo, travel-ed, and after a brief return to Europe when he studied at the Budapest National Theatre of Puppetry, settled in Osaka where he realized he felt most at home.
Lutringer's enduring fascination for the bold makes him a painter of light: he is infused with a vibrant energy and like Mishima, authors his own pavilion in every gallery opening.

Text: Una Funk
Photos: Courtesy Dominic Lutringer