After presenting Soy Sauce Art Museum, in which Ozawa used soy sauce to paint and display masterpieces from the history of Japanese art from ancient times to the present, Ozawa went on to create the Soy Sauce Art series, in which he used real soy sauce to paint masterpieces from the history of art in Japan and abroad. This imaginary genre of painting has become one of Ozawa’s important work. This work is a reference to Andy Warhol’s Elvis. By depicting Warhol’s pop culture icon Elvis with soy sauce, a domestic symbol of Japan, the work raises questions about the origins of contemporary art history in post-war Japan and art history in the world, including today’s Japan that has seemingly achieved modernization and westernization. This imaginary genre of painting also raises new questions about the system of “Art” itself.
