Atelier Estate

This archive was established to preserve the structure of the body of work left in the artist’s home and studio after her death.

The works were not stored as a carefully ordered exhibition collection. Nakamura painted while working as an art teacher, often with a force that converted vitality and anger directly into the surface, and stacked the completed works in the studio. Some therefore bear dirt, abrasion, cracking, looseness of support or other effects of long storage.

The archive distinguishes the artist’s original material actions—impasto, scraping, exposed canvas and rough contour—from later damage. Deterioration is documented rather than aestheticised.

Many works have no recorded date or original title. Titles published here are provisional titles assigned by the family for cataloguing. Dimensions, condition, signatures, inscriptions and reverse-side information are updated only when the physical work is examined.

As the house is being cleared, not every object can be retained in one location. Photography and fixed catalogue numbers therefore recover the whole digitally before decisions are made about preservation, transfer, sale or disposal. Works remain traceable within the catalogue even after dispersal.

The catalogue currently contains 60 paintings and works on paper. Ceramics, calligraphy, childhood photographs, family documents and further unphotographed works will be added as the archive develops.