About twenty years have already past since I became acquainted with Nobuyoshi Iwaki. I first encountered his works when I was invited to act as chief judge at the Toyama Prefecture Fine Art Exhibition. Since that time he has engaged in experimental work, exploiting the conflicting character of stone and iron. The combination of materials of a different nature in this way was unique at that time, and his works were outstandingly successful. Since then he has assiduously continued his work of sculpture in stone, and has found himself in relation to a material which is heavy and unyielding.
The obstinacy of a stonemason and the spirit of free poetry coexist, and unite with a philosophy of plastic art, fostered by a constitution which communicates with stone and recognises its true nature.
　One of the important concepts of Iwaki’s work is counterpoint in sculpture. He cerates a certain solemn space in the relation between stone and stone, stone and iron, stone and space. For example, a work which was submitted to the Kodobijutsu Exhibition, last Autumn, was made up of a cylindrical stone which penetrated a thick iron plate which was bent at a right angle. This basic structure conformed to an immovable standard, yet it was charged with life. It could be called the expression of a theory of material power, the conflict between materials……
In another recent work, he made a structure of rectangles by combining iron piping with iron plate. The space he thus created made me aware of the mass which had been eliminated, a kind of negative existence. It could be expressed as the afterimage of a colossal lump of stone……
There are the tracesof his pursuit, al’ways eliminating, but unceasing.

1978
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