Lyric No. 29: Sad self-satisfaction

"Lyric No. 29: Sad Self-Satisfaction" is one of Onchi's most psychologically explicit abstract titles — the specific emotional state of "sad self-satisfaction" giving the viewer a precise emotional key for engaging the composition. This kind of emotional precision in titling characterized his mature abstract work: not vague evocations but specific psychological states translated into formal terms. Sad self-satisfaction — the feeling of a hard-won achievement that brings less joy than anticipated — is rendered through formal means whose specific character embodies that complex affect.