Orchestra

On a blackish-brown ground, a large, slightly distorted oval is painted in white. Inside this white area, the conductor and the string and wind players are drawn in thin lines that look scratched into the paint. The lines overlap repeatedly and become so dense near the center of the picture that the human forms are almost indistinguishable. At the lower front, what looks like a conductor's podium and an instrument resembling a cello can be seen.

Migishi encountered European avant-garde art at the 1932 "Paris-Tokyo New Art League Exhibition," and he went on to try one experiment after another, including "compositions" that assemble abstract forms and works built from lines alone. This piece is a representative example of that linear style, and is said to attempt to express the resonance of music through overlapping lines.

The following year Migishi moved on to a fantastical series depicting butterflies and shells, and he died in 1934 at the age of 31. Within a career in which his style changed greatly in only a few years, this work marks the period when he stepped into the avant-garde.

It is owned by the Hokkaido Migishi Kotaro Museum of Art and is sometimes introduced in the museum's collection exhibitions. The museum also holds many drawings with the same title.