Takeo Yamaguchi’s style was a blend of influences from disparate traditions—a reflection of the artist’s training in both Modernist styles and Japanese painting techniques. Yamaguchi first studied European styles of painting at the Tokyo Art School and then in Paris, and took particular interest in Cubism and other avant-garde movements; he was attracted to the reduction of form to flat planes. Upon his return to Japan, he became involved with the Nika-Kai Group, which was founded in opposition to the separation of canonical Japanese painting and Western styles. In the 1950s and ’60s, Yamaguchi developed his mature style, a blend of Art Informel, flat geometry, and monochromatic reduction.