shiraga - SEM

SHIRAGA
KAZUO
(1924 - 2008)
Gutai’s expansive concept of painting did not necessarily involve paint and a canvas.
hoped that the finished painting would display traces of
action carried out with speed.
In October 1955 at the first Gutai exhibition in Tokyo
Shiraga enacted his renowned performance, Challenging Mud. It involved him wrestling with a truckload of
clay mixed with cement that had been emptied into the
courtyard of the exhibition venue. The performance,
which he repeated three times during the course of the
exhibition, survives only in the form of photographs and
film footage.
The 1957 Gutai Art on the Stage Exhibition opened
with Shiraga Kazuo’s Ultra Modern Sanbasō, a contemporary take on the Nō theater´s opening number that
explored the blurring of the boundaries between painting and theater. Shiraga's work began with a lit stage,
empty of everything except for a row of painting poles.
The poles fell down one by one, producing a painting
moving through time and space and incorporating the
sounds of the poles striking the ground. Once the geometric abstraction had become a monochrome, Shiraga emerged onto the stage wearing a long pointy nose
and red costume with long reinforced sleeves and a tall
pointy hat, which allowed him to become an undulating
red line on the stage. After his dance, an army of Gutai
members rushed the stage with bows and arrows and
completed the painting by shooting the arrows into the
stage backdrop. "I ardently look forward to debating
whether it is the act of shooting an arrow, or the surface
that it pierces that is art.1"
It was an actualisation of the exhortation made by the
leader of the Gutai group Yoshihara Jiro, to create paintings of a kind that nobody has ever seen before.
At the time of the Gutai exhibition Shiraga had already
started to paint with his feet. This substitution of the human body for the paintbrush was totally revolutionary.
For Shiraga, painting with his feet enabled an unmediated encounter with the material and a direct bodily form
of artistic expression.
Shiraga was generally considered the most distinguished artist to emerge from the Gutai Art Association,
and in his later years, as his reputation grew, he was
the subject of various exhibitions both in Japan and in
European countries.
Subsequently, he began to use his own body as a substitute for a brush, painting directly with his hands, head
and feet. His most characteristic technique, first displayed at the second Gutai exhibition in 1956, entailed
pouring paint onto a canvas on the floor, and making
strokes with his feet while hanging and swinging from
ropes suspended from the ceiling. Thus, his work incorporated the choreography and random motions of his
body into the design, a fact which gave his work its
distinctive visual dynamism and its characteristic bold
arcs and slashes of colour. Shiraga commented that he
During the Sixties Shiraga occasionally experimented
with new techniques and new implements, for instance,
painting with wooden boards, and creating a number
of fan-shaped objects in paper. Otherwise, however, his
technique and style changed little through his 50-year
career.
In 1971, shortly before Yoshihara's death, he had entered
the Buddhist priesthood at the Enryaku Monastery on
Mount Hiei, near Kyoto. Under his monk's name, Sodo,
he continued to paint until the end of his life.
SEM-ART
1 Tiampo, Ming. Gutai: Decentering Modernism. University of
20, avenue de la Costa
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w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
Chicago Press. 2011.
1
Biography
1924
1942 - 1948
1948
1948
1952
1955
2008
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Born in Amagasaki, Japan
Attended Kyoto Municipal School of Painting, Kyoto, Japan
Studied at City Art Center, Osaka, Japan
Joined New Creation Art Association, Japan
Formed Zero Society with Saburo Murakami and Akira Kanayama
Joined Gutai Art Association
Died in Amagasaki, Japan
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Awarded
Awarded
Awarded
Awarded
Awards
1965
1987
1999
2002
the
the
the
the
Amagasaki Citizen’s Cultural Prize
Hyogo Prefectural Cultural Prize for Excellence
Distinguished Service Medal for Culture
Osaka Art Prize
Selected solo exhibitions
2012
2010
2009
2007
2004
2001
1999
1998
1997
1994
1993
1992
• Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
• Shiraga Kazuo, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan
• Azumino Municipal Museum of Modern Art, Toyoshina, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• Painting Born Of Fighting, Yokosuka Museum of Art, Yokosuka-city, Japan
• Kazuo Shiraga: Six Decades, McCaffrey Fine Art, New York, USA
• Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Paris, France
• Kazuo Shiraga. Paintings and Watercolours, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK
• Gallery Apa, Nagoya, Japan
• Kazuo Shiraga zum 80. Geburtstag, Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Berlin, Germany
• Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan
• Kazuo Shiraga. Paintings and Watercolours, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK
• Kazuo Shiraga - Bilder von 1960 - 1991, Galerie Georg Nothelfer - Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
• Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, Miyazaki, Japan
• Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
• Gallery Arai, Nishinomiya, Japan
• Gallery Apa, Nagoya, Japan
• Kazuo Shiraga, Galerie Stefan Röpke, Koln, Germany
• Museum Kita, Nara, Japan
• Keihan Gallery of Arts and Science, Osaka, Japan
• Musée d’Art Moderne Réfectoire des Jacobins, Labège, France
• Gallery Apa, Nagoya, Japan
• Gallery MMG, Tokyo, Japan
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Galerie Stadler, Paris, France
• Gallery Georg Nothelfer, Berlin, Germany
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
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w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
2
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1982
1980
1973
1964
1962
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Gallery Shirakawa, Kyoto, Japan
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Gallery Kuranuki, Osaka, Japan
• Gallery Kasahara, Osaka, Japan
• Amagasaki Cultural Centre, Amagasaki, Japan
• Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan
• Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Berlin, Germany
• Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, France
• Galleria Milano, Milan, Italy
• Galerie Stadler, Paris, France
• Gallery Be-Art, Kyoto, Japan
• Kazuo Shiraga, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka, Japan
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Galerie Stadler, Paris, France
• International Center for Aesthetic Research, Turin, Italy (Travelling Exhibition)
• Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, Italy
• Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
Selected group exhibitions
2012
2011
2010
• Gutai: The Spirit of an Era, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
• A Visual Essay on Gutai, Hauser & Wirth New York , New York City, USA
• Explosion! Painting as Action, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• Dance Your Life, Centre Pompidou; Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris, France
• Symbiosis: Conversations Between East And West, Hackett I Mill, San Francisco, USA
• Farbe im Fluß - Weserburg, Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany
• Farbe im Fluss - 20 Jahre Weserburg - Weserburg, Museum für moderne Kunst, Bre-
men, Germany
• TRA. The edge of becoming, Museo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
• Made in Japan, Tezukayama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
• 40 Jahre Galerie Georg Nothelfer. 1971 - 2011, Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Berlin, Germany
• Gutai: dipingere con il tempo e lo spazio, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland
• Collection 3. Japanese Art 1950–2010, NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan
• Japanese Art 1950–2010, The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, Romania
• Im 2-wöchingen Rhytmus, Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Berlin, Germany
• Gutai: Painting with Time and Space, Museo Cantonale d´Arte Lugano, Lugano, Swit-
zerland
• Art of Modern Japan, National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (MOMAT), Tokyo, Japan
• LE GRAND GESTE! - Informel and Abstract Expressionism, 1946-1964, Museum Kunstpa-
last, Düsseldorf, Germany
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
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2002
2001
1999
1998
1997
1996
1994
1993
• Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan, 1950-
1970, UMMA - The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
• In-finitum, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
• The Perpetual Dialogue, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York City, USA
• 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)
• Astratte Figurazioni - Galleria Biasutti & Biasutti Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin
• Performing the City- Kunst Aktionismus im Stadt Raum 60er und 70er Jahre, Lothrin-
ger13, Städtische Kunsthalle München, Munich, Germany
• Summer of Contemporary Art, Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan
• Resounding Spirit: Japanese Contemporary Art of the 1960s, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, USA
• Paul McCarthy’s Low Life Slow Life: Part 1, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
• Action Painting, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
• Summer Exhibition, Kamakura Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan
• Artempo - Where Times Becomes Art, Museo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
• La Vérité, Galerie Seine 51, Paris, France
• Zéro, Musée d’Art moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France
• Sommer in Berlin - Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Berlin, Germany
• Zero - Internationale Künstler-Avantgarde der 50er/60er Jahre, Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, Germany
• Arte religione politica, PAC - Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
• Big Bang - Destruction et creation dans l’art du 20e siècle, Centre Pompidou - Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris, France
• Japanese, Korean and Chinese Art, BTAP (Beijing Tokyo Art Projects), Tokyo, Japan
• Resounding Spirit - Japanese Contemporary Art of the 1960s, Samek Art Gallery , Lewisburg, USA
• 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)
• Artists of Gutai Art Association, Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, Japan
• Glimpses of the Permanent Collection, CAM - Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA
• Samadhi - The Contemplation of Space, CAM - Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA
• Le Tribù dell’Arte, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
• Vision, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota Aichi, Japan
• Gutai, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
• Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979, The Museum of Contemporary Art at The Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles, USA (Travelling Exhibi
tion)
• Torino Parigi New York Osaka. Tapié. Un Art Autre, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino, Turin, Italy (Travelling Exhibition)
• Formless: A User’s Guide, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• 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
• La Biennale di Venezia, 45a Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, Passagio ad
Oriente, Venice, Italy
• Challenge of Art After the War: Jiro Yoshihara and the Gutai Group, Ehime Museum of Art, Matsuyama, 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
1992
1991
1990
1986
1985
1983
1979
1978
1976
1971
1970
1969
1968
1967
1966
1965
• 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
• 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
• Giappone all’avanguardia. Il Gruppo Gutai negli anni Cinquanta, Galleria Nazionale d’ Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
• 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, UK (Travelling Exhibition)
• Grupo Gutai: Pintura y Acción, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, Spain (Travelling Exhibition)
• Dada in Japan/Japanese Avantgarde 1920-1970, Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany (Travelling Exhibition)
• Jiro Yoshihara and Today’s Aspects of Gutai, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan
• La Biennale di Venezia 1978. From Nature to Art, from Art to Nature, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
• Eighteen Years of Gutai Art, Osaka Prefectural Gallery, Osaka, Japan
• Aspetti dell’Informale. Mostra storica Internazionale, Pinacoteca Provinciale, Bari, Italy
• Exhibition at the entrance of Expo ’70 Midori Pavilion by the Gutai Group, Midori Pavi
lion, Osaka, Japan
• An Exhibition of Prints by Eight Gutai Artists, Gallery Iteza, Kyoto, 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
• Gutai Group Osaka Japan, Experiment Studio, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Gutai Group Exhibition, Heide Hildebrand Gallery, Klagenfurt, Austria
• 19th Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• 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)
• Moderne Malerei aus Japan, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland
• NUL 1965 Art Exhibition (Nul Negentienhonderd vijfenzestig), Stedelijk Museum, Ams-
terdam, The Netherlands
• The New Japanese Painters and Sculptures, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (Travelling Exhibition)
• 15th Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, 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
5
1964
1963
1962
1961
1960
1959
1958
1957
1956
1955
• 16th Gutai Art Exhibition, Keio Department Store, Tokyo, Japan
• Groupe Gutai, Galerie Stadler, Paris, France (Travelling Exhibition)
• 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
• 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
• Galerie DuMont, Koln, Germany
• 11th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan
• Bluhm, Gallizio, Onishi, Shiraga, Tapies, Twombly, Accademia filarmonico-letteraria, Alba, 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)
• XII Premio Lissone internazionale per la pittura, Palazzo del Centro del Mobile, Lissone, Italy
• The International Sky Festival, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan
• 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 Exhi-
bition)
• The Fifteen Japanese Contemporary Artists Recommended by Tapié, Gendai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• 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, 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)
• 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 Art Exhibition of the World (Informel: Genèse d’un art autre), Takashi
maya Department Store, Osaka, Japan (Travelling Exhibition)
• One Day Only Outdoor Exhibition (also known as the Ruins Exhibition), Mukogawa River, Amagasaki, Japan
• 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
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
SEM-ART
SHIRAGA KAZUO
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
CHIKASI SHINSANSHI, 1961
195 x 130 cm
Oil on canvas
Signed & dated on canvas, left bottom side
7
SEM-ART
SHIRAGA KAZUO
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
UNTITLED, 1961
97 x 130 cm
Oil on canvas
Signed & dated on canvas, left bottom side
8
GUTAI exhibition at SEM ART GALLERY
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GUTAI exhibition at SEM ART GALLERY
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