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Art in America, Feb, 2005 by Reena Jana

At first glance, many of the nudes featured in Kenro Izu's "Blue" series--large-format (14-by-20-inch) palladium-and-platinum-with-cyanotype prints--seem as utterly straightforward as the spare, meditative architectural photographs of Asian temples and holy sites for which he is best known. Yet the 19 images chosen from the ongoing series for display at Howard Greenberg offer subtle art-historical references and formal elegance; they frequently reveal an engaging complexity as well. Some works recall Edward Weston's carefully composed nudes. Blue #1010B (2004), for example, features a female figure from the back, her arms and legs strategically folded to emphasize the fluid curves of her body. Other images are highly abstract. In Blue #851B (2001), Izu utilizes inky, near-black hues and tight cropping to create a shadowy composition in which an androgynous figure's musculature evokes a nighttime landscape rather than shoulders, back and neck.

The artist's poetic utilization of cyanotype lends the work visual mystery and nuance. Invented in the mid-1800s, cyanotype eventually gained widespread use in the form of architectural blueprints. A master printer with an international reputation, Izu achieves a wide range of velvety tones by adding one or two layers of cyanotype to the watercolor paper on which he prints his negatives. The results range from sapphire (invoking the shades used to depict tidal waves in ukiyo-e woodblock prints of Izu's native Japan) to dark cobalt (reminiscent of Yves Klein's signature blue) to a deep blue-black. For this exhibition, Izu mounted the prints on aluminum, without glass, hung to protrude slightly from the wall. The effect created a sense of intimacy and vulnerability, echoing the physical and emotional exposure associated with nudity itself.

The more legible nudes are the least interesting. Blue #1119B (2004), for example, which highlights a pair of feminine hands, or Blue #1067B (2004), the only frontal image that features the model's face--with eyes closed--and torso, are banal compositionally. Compare an intriguing, slightly disturbing work such as Blue #1151B (2001), in which an androgynous figure is presented lying face down, head cropped off at the bottom of the frame. The body is captured with legs splayed in an odd, yet graceful, position. The very strangeness of this composition, rendered in a brilliant, nearly glowing blue, exemplifies Izu's most successful attempts to reconfigure the classic photographic nude study with esthetic and formal strategies that are anything but derivative.