yoshihara - SEM

YOSHIHARA
JIRO
(1905 - 1972)
G
utai was formed in 1954 by Jiro Yoshihara, who was
born into a wealthy family of manufacturers that
produced one of Japan’s most popular salad oil dressings. His family obligations precluded him from the art
education he desired to receive in Paris, yet he was kept
informed of advances in modern art by subscriptions
to leading Western art journals and the building of an
impressive art library that has been preserved and catalogued.
culosis. Before the war, advanced Japanese artists, especially those following trends in Western Art, such as
Surrealism, were imprisoned, much as the Nazi regime
derided European Modernism with their Degenerate Art
exhibition.
Yoshihara became especially excited about the possibilities of a new art, when in 1947, Life magazine published
the famous article on Jackson Pollock, proposing the self
fulfilling prophecy, “Is He the Most Famous Artist in America.” Yoshihara saw parallels between Pollock’s action paining with historic Japanese calligraphy, where strokes and
splotches evoked the active collaboration of artist and material. He was nearly fifty at this time, painting in an abstract
style, after a period of Surrealism.
Born in 1905, he was too young to participate in the first
wave of Modernism, but although isolated in provincial
Japan, he became acquainted with a local painter, Jiro
Kamiyama, who had been in Paris from 1922 to 1924,
and again from 1925 to 1927. It was he who first encouraged Yoshihara to pursue his own path in art, advising
him that,“originality and personality are the most important things.”1
Gutai’s ebullient experiments were not always well received. Indeed, in 1956 art critic Sanami Hajime commented that critics in the Tokyo art world saw Gutai
as immature works that hardly measure up to accepted
categories of painting and sculpture.
Despite his having to attend a school of commerce in
Kobe, Yoshihara joined a painting group and exhibited
Modernist inspired works influenced by Cezanne. In
1934, he met one of the most celebrated Japanese painters in Paris, Leonard Foujita, a friend of the Surrealists.
Seeking criticism, Yoshihara presented his paintings to
the elder artist, who rebuked them for being derivative.
For why would Yoshihara, a highly engaged leader in the
postwar Japanese art world, encurage the Gutai members to make work that was perceived as irrilevant ? The
anwer lies in the lesson Yoshihara took from both prewar
modernism and from the war itself : an understanding of
indvidual autonomy as resistance against the mass psycology of militarism. Thus by the time he founded Gutai,
his mantra, create what has not being done before had
taken on new meaning. Not only was this insistence on
originality an atempt to assert a vald modernism outside
the West, but after the war it was also an avowal of subjective independence in the context of Japan’s recent
militarist history.2
Yoshihara’s striving for originality, which became the
overriding Gutai directive, went beyond the creation
of works of significant contemporary art. He was also
concerned with the transformation of the Japanese
psyche from wartime regimentation to independence
of thought, a rupture with the past leading to reentry
with the world. He himself had sat out the war in retreat, excused from military service because of tuber-
Yoshihara’s early student Shozo Shimamoto was often
called upon to diffuse tensions that arose within the
group, due to Yoshihara’s strong personality. Gutai
was no social club, rather a tough-minded approach to
conceptualizing and producing works of modern art under the stern tutelage of Jiro Yoshihara. One of the secrets of this group, Shimamoto wrote, “was its strict rule
against imitation. My responsibility in the group, along
with recruiting young and promising artists, was to persuade those who felt the policy too strict to remain with
us. Yoshihara, as might be expected of a president of
a large company, took a broad view, not caring about
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
1
small successes or failures. However, the atmosphere of
the group was too serious to let young people feel at
ease, and, for example, go out drinking together...”
applied with a single calligraphic stroke of the brush.3
Yoshihara passed away on February 4, 1972. He was 67
years old. On March 31, the remaining members met to
discuss the future of Gutai and decided to disband the
group. After 18 years of diverse experimental activity,
the group came to an end.
“He stubbornly opposed casual, frivolous ideas especially anything even vaguely literary. Most of the ideas we
suggested, which have by now actually been realized by
others, were discarded... At the same time he wanted us
to free our minds from conventional frameworks. I advised
and encouraged members in that direction, Yoshihara, in
turn, showed no mercy in criticizing our creations... Jiro
Yoshihara not only inspired young artists, but was also
very strict about making them finish their works.
Koichi Kawasaki, having served as Chief Curator at both
the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art and the Ashiya
City Museum, two museums with the comprehensive
collections of Gutai, is in as good a position as any to
comment on the aftermath and meaning of Gutai.
In 1957 Gutai was discovered by the French critic Michel
Tapié, who saw the group as part of the wide-ranging
Art Informel trend that he believed represented a decisive break with the past. Tapié’s devotion to Gutai and
his ceaseless efforts to promote its work in the West
were vital to the group’s international standing. But in
his secondary role as art dealer, he also pressed Yoshihara for more paintings (as they would be easier to
export and sell to foreign buyers), and ultimately curbed
the group’s more experimental tendencies. In the early
sixties, Yoshihara began to sense that the Art Informel
style had lost much of its appeal and that something
had to be done to save Gutai. His solution was to recruit
a younger generation of artists who were influenced by
current trends such as pop, kinetic, and technological
art. Yoshihara also established the Gutai Pinacotheca,
a private museum and headquarters for the group in
three refurbished storehouses in Osaka’s Nakanoshima
district, which attracted visiting dignitaries from the art
world like John Cage, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. It was also around this time that Yoshihara
managed to set aside his role as leader and redefine
himself as an artist with a series of massive two-colored (usually black-and-white or red-and-black) canvases depicting a large circle that had seemingly been
Responding to the self-imposed question, So what is
Gutai?, he answers provocatively,
“Gutai is, in itself, a work of art by Jiro Yoshihara. Gutai
is a work that continues to exist. Despite the distinct
characteristics of the various artists in the group, Gutai is Gutai... Fifty years since its founding and its first
recognition abroad, Gutai has gained great esteem in
the West, having been exhibited with rising frequency
over the past twenty years.The unflagging efforts of
the group have defied Japanese criticism. Even today,
Gutai’s works inspire awe, and are acknowledged as
unique art pieces, the likes of which have never been
seen before.”4
1 WHY GUTAI ? By JOHN HELD, JR. http://www.sfaqonline.com
2 Tiampo, Ming. Gutai: Decentering Modernism. University of
Chicago Press. 2011. P. 37
3 Christopher Stephens «Gutai: The Kansai Avant-Garde Group
Finally Arrives» http://www.dnp.co.jp/
4 WHY GUTAI ? By JOHN HELD, JR. http://www.sfaqonline.com
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
2
Biography
1905
1928
1948
1954
1972
•
•
•
•
•
Born in Osaka, Japan
Graduated from Kansai Gakuin University with degree in Economics
Helped to form the Ashiya City Art Association
Founded Gutai Art Association and became its leader
Died
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Received
Received
Received
Received
Received
Received
Received
Awards
1937
1953
1963
1967
1971
1972
the prize for Distinction at 24th Nika Exhibition
Award from Osaka Prefecture
Hyogo Prefectural Cultural Award
the Kobe Newspaper First Award for Peace
Japan Grand Prix at the 9th International Art Exhibition of Japan
First Golden Prize at Indo-Triennale, New Delhi, India
Award from Japanese Government
Selected solo exhibitions
2005
2002
1998
1997
1995
1993
1992
1989
1973
1970
1967
1928
• Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan
• Jiro Yoshihara: A Centenary Retrospective 1905-1972, ATC Museum, Osaka
Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan
• Jiro Yoshihara 1905-1972 from the Collection of Osaka City Museum of Modern Art, ATC Museum, Osaka, Japan
• Jiro Yoshihara Drawings, 1945-1955, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan
• Jiro Yoshihara Drawings, 1955-1972,Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan
• Early Drawings of Jiro Yoshihara, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan
• La Biennale di Venezia, 45a Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, Israel Pavilion, Passaggio ad Oriente, Venice, Italy
• Jiro Yoshihara, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan (Travelling Exhibi-
tion)
• Jiro Yoshihara, Gallery Asuka, Tokyo, Japan
• The Man Who Made Tomorrow: Jiro Yoshihara, Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Asahi Gallery, Osaka, Japan
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
3
Selected group exhibitions
2012
2010
2009
2006
2004
2003
2002
2001
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
•
•
•
•
•
Gutai: The Spirit of an Era, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
Gutai: dipingere con il tempo e lo spazio, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland
In-finitum, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
La Biennale di Venezia, 53a Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, Fare Mondi, Venice, Italy
Under Each Other’s Spell: Gutai and New York, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Cen-
ter, New York, USA (Travelling Exhibition)
• Zero. Internationale Künstler-Avantgarde der 50er/60er Jahre, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany (Travelling Exhibition)
• GUTAI 1954-1972, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan
• Traces: Body and Idea in Contemporary Art, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• History of Post-War Art, ATC Museum, Osaka, Japan
• Artists of Gutai Art Association, Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, Japan
• Le Tribù dell’Arte, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
• Osaka City Museum of Modern Art Collection 2001: Art Panorama, ATC Museum, Osaka, Japan
• Gutai, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
• Sogetsu and its era, 1945-1970, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya,
Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• À Rebours: La Rebelión Informalista 1939-1968, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Pal-
mas de Gran Canaria, Spain (Travelling Exhibition)
• Osaka City Museum of Modern Art Exhibition: Discovery of Art City Osaka-Modern Art and Osaka-ism, ATC Museum, Osaka, Japan
• Torino Parigi New York Osaka. Tapié. Un Art Autre, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino, Turin, Italy (Travelling Exhibition)
• Modernism between the Hanshin, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Shedding Light on Art in Japan: 1953, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
• Japanese Culture: The Fifty Postwar Years, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (Tra
velling Exhibition)
• Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (Travelling Exhibition)
• Gutai II: 1959-1965, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan
• Gutai III: 1965-1972, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan
• The Spiritual in Art: Dialogue of the Heart, Fukuyama Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan
• La Biennale di Venezia, 45a Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, Passagio ad Oriente, Venice, Italy
• Ehime Museum of Art, Challenge of Art After the War: Jiro Yoshihara and the Gutai Group, Matsuyama, Japan
• Gutai 1955/56: Restarting Point for Japanese Contemporary Art, Penrose Institute of Contemporary Arts, Tokyo, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Artists of Gutai Art Association, Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, Japan
• Abstract Painting in Japan, 1910-1945, Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Gutai I: 1954-1958, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan
• Outdoor Exhibition Revisited, Ashiya Park, Ashiya, Japan
• Gutai Japanische Avantgarde 1954-1965, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany
• Adventurers of Paintings ‘Gutai’, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
• Gutai: The Avant-Garde Group Unfinished, Shoto Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
4
1989
1986
1985
1979
1976
1973
1971
1970
1969
1968
1967
1966
1965
• Modernism and Figurative Painting, Hakodate Museum of Art, Hokkaido, Japan (Travel
ling Exhibition)
• Giappone all’avanguardia. Il Gruppo Gutai negli anni Cinquanta, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
• Creators of Contemporary Art: Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe, 1945-1954, Tottori Prefectural Museum, Tottori, Japan
• Japon des Avant-Gardes 1910-1970, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• Jiro Yoshihara and Gutai, Ashiya Civic Center, Ashiya, Japan
• Action and Emotion, Paintings of the ‘50s, Informel, Gutai, Cobra, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
• Reconstructions: Avant-garde Art in Japan 1945- 1965, Oxford, Museum of Modern Art, Great Britain (Travelling Exhibition)
• Grupo Gutai: Pintura y Acción, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, Spain (Travelling Exhibition)
• Jiro Yoshihara and Today’s Aspects of Gutai, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art,
Kobe, Japan
• Eighteen Years of Gutai Art, Osaka Prefectural Gallery, Osaka, Japan
• Photographs of Gutai Art, Morris Form Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
• Aspetti dell’Informale. Mostra storica Internazionale, Pinacoteca Provinciale, Bari, Italy
• Garden on Garden, Expo’70 Museum, Outdoor Section, Osaka, Japan
• 70 Midori Pavilion by the Gutai Group, exhibition at the entrance of Expo Midori Pavi-
lion, Osaka, Japan
• Human Documents, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• An Exhibition of Prints by Eight Gutai Artists, Kyoto, Gallery Iteza, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Spazi astratti. Dall’intuizione alla concettualizzazione, Galleria d’Arte Cortina, Milan, Italy
• 1st Hiroshima Renaissance Art Exhibition, Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, Hiroshima, Japan
• 20th Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
• 21st Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
• Contemporary Art Exhibition Only in the Night, Miyazaki Kanko Hotel, Miyazaki, Japan
• Art of the Space Age by the Gutai Group, Hanshin Park, Nishinomiya, Japan
• Gutai Group Exhibition, Heide Hildebrand Gallery, Klagenfurt, Austria
• Gutai Pinacotheca, 19th Gutai Art Exhibition, Osaka, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Japan Art Festival, Houston, USA
• 1st Japan Art Festival, Union Carbide Building, New York, USA
• NUL 1966 Art Exhibition (Nul Negentienhonderd zesenzestig), International Gallery Orez, , The Hague, The Netherlands
• 2ème Salon International des Galeries Pilotes Lausanne, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Art Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland
• 17th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Yokohama, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• NUL 1965 Art Exhibition (Nul Negentienhonderd vijfenzestig), Stedelijk Museum, Ams-
terdam, The Netherlands
• The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (Travelling Exhibition)
• 15th Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
• 16th Gutai Art Exhibition, Keio Department Store, Tokyo, Japan
• Groupe Gutai, Galerie Stadler, Paris, France (Travelling Exhibition)
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
5
1964
1963
1962
1961
1960
1959
1958
1957
1956
• Guggenheim International Award, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
• 14th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan
• The Beautiful Japan Exposition: The Annual Ring of Beauty, Takarazuka Family Land, Takarazuka, Japan
• Intuiciones y Realizaciones Formales, Centro de Artes Visuales Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Contemporary Japanese Painting and Sculpture, Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C., USA
• 12th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan
• 13th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan
• Exposition d’Art Moderne, Grand Palais, Paris, France
• 11th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan
• Strutture e Stile, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy
• L’Incontro di Torino. Pittori d’America, Europa e Giappon, Palazzo della Promotrice al Valentino, Turin, Italy
• Don’t Worry, the Moon Won’t Fall Down: Gutai Art and Morita Modern Dance, Sankei Hall, Osaka, Japan
• The Continuité et Avant-garde au Japon, International Center of Aesthetic Research, Turin, Italy
• 10th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Japanische Malerei der Gegenwart, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
• XII Premio Lissone internazionale per la pittura, Palazzo del Centro del Mobile, Lissone, Italy
• 1961 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, USA
• The International Sky Festival, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan
• 9th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan
• Four Japanese Artists, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA
• Arte Nuova, Esposizione Internazionale di pittura e scultura, Circolo degli Artisti in Palazzo Graneri, Turin, Italy
• 8th Gutai Art Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• XI Premio Lissone internazionale per la pittura, Palazzo del Centro del Mobile, Lissone, Italy
• Métamorphismes, Galerie Stadler, Paris, France
• 2nd Gutai Art on the Stage, Asahi Hall, Osaka, Japan
• International Art of a New Era: Informel and Gutai, Takashimaya Department Store, • International Art of a New Era: Informel and Gutai, Osaka, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Gutai Small Works Exhibition, (later known as 5th Gutai Art Exhibition), Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan
• The Gutai Group Exhibition, (later know as 6th Gutai Art Exhibition), Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA (Travelling Exhibition)
• 1958 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, USA
• L’informel et le Gutai, Asahi Kaikan, Osaka, Japan
• 3rd Gutai Art Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
• Gutai Art on the Stage, Sankei Hall, Osaka, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• 4th Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan
• International Contemporary Art Exhibition of the World (Informel: Genèse d’un art autre), Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
• One Day Only Outdoor Exhibition (also known as the Ruins Exhibition), Mukogawa River, Amagasaki, Japan
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
6
1955
1952
1934
• Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition, Ashiya Park, Ashiya, Japan
• 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan
• Experimental Outdoor Exhibition of Modern Art to Challenge the Midsummer Sun, Ashiya Park, Ashiya, Japan
• 1st Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan
• Third Biennale, Tokyo, Japan
• Salon de Mai, Paris, France
• 1952 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, USA
• 24th Nika Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
7
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
YOSHIHARA Jiro
UNTITLED, 1956
52 x 45 cm
Oil on canvas
Signed
8
GUTAI exhibition at SEM ART GALLERY
9