A Boy And His Dog

A boy and his dog—universal companionship of childhood rendered in Azechi's warm, folk-art-inflected style—shows the two small figures in the proximity that defines loyalty between a child and his animal. In the mountain village context of much of Azechi's work, the working dog was a practical companion on the slopes; for a child, the same animal became something more purely affectionate. His simplified rendering gives both figures the rounded solidity of carved wooden folk toys, the relationship of boy and dog expressed through the easy geometry of their shared proximity.