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Lot Essay
ANTAGONISTIC STAND:
'Sixties Art' in Japan
Gutai Art Association, Neo-Dadaism Organizer and Mono-ha
The Japanese art world in the 1960s can be described as a "two-layered structure composed of artists affiliated with organizations and un-affiliated artists"1.The rise of artists outside this organizational structure formed the avant-garde art scene with unconventional means of creating art. In opposition to organization-affiliated artists whom were generally accepted as the cultural norm within Japan, avant-garde artists strove to engage with a broader platform in the art world abroad. The increasing interest in the vision of avant-garde Japanese artists is manifested by their participation overseas exhibitions in the 1960s, including Biennales of Venice, Sao Paulo, and Paris.
This represents a complete departure from the period prior to the Second World War when the direction of art was dominated by the Open Participation Organization (Kobo Dantai). Beginning after the war in the 1950s, the new presence of "unattached artists"who exhibited their art in independent exhibitions provided a counterpoint to the Open Participation Organization. In Osaka, various art groups formed by young artists burning with enthusiasm, including the Genbi (Contemporary Art Panel) launched in 1952, Zero Society, and Gutai Art Association active from 1954 to 1972 in the Osaka and Kansai region. Examples in Tokyo including Neo-Dadaism Organizers who overturned institutional art in the 1960s, and later the Mono-ha formed by young artists active from the late 1960s to 1970s who proposed new ideas but with a less antagonistic and political attitude.
Besides the Gutai Art Association, Neo-Dadaism Organizer and Mono-ha in Japan, groups of artists in other parts of the world were trying to bring new vitality to painting in the 1960s, including Art Informel, CoBrA and Arte Povera in Europe, and Abstract Expressionism in the USA.
The Gutai Art Association contributed greatly in fresh form of 'Sixties Art'. Though was not widely recognized by the mainstream opinion leaders of Japan at that time, its direct engagement with the art world overseas brought global exposure to Japanese avant-garde art . By abandoning consciousness, artists from Gutai Art Association—Shozo Shimamoto, Sadamasa Motonaga, Kazuo Shiraga, Tedasaki Matsuta n i — at tempted t o examine the unconscious depths, previously invisible to the rational eye, through their unconventional and physical creative processes. This unprecedented exploration questioned and denied the traditional art forms of painting and sculpture, opening up possibilities for new media in art.
From these Gutai artists mushroomed a diversity of new art forms which expressed the group's core values of freedom, unpredictability and the force of life. Just as Jiro Yoshihara proclaimed in the first issue of the "Gutai"publication, "It is our desire to embody the fact that our spirit is free."2 Named by Shozo Shimamoto, "Gutai"is the made up from two ideograms, 'gu' meaning 'implement' and 'tai' meaning body or form. The link between matter and the body is the energy that passes through it: life. 3 The absence of paint brush and easel in the two-dimensional works featured in Lot 463, 464, 468, 470, 471 and 512 represent the common practice found in the early career of Shimamoto, Shiraga and Motonaga who deviated from conventional painting practices.
1 The Japan Foundation, Art in Japan Today II 1970-1983, Tokyo, 1984, p. 11.
2 Jiro Yoshihara, "On the Occasion of Publication," Gutai No. 1, January 1955.
3 Gabriella Dalesio, 'Introduction', Shozo Shimamoto, Between East and West-Life, the Substance of Art, edition Morra, Napels, Italy, 2014, pp. 10-11.
USHIO SHINOHARA
Oiran Series and Motorcycle
Ushio Shinohara was born in Tokyo in 1932. He started his artistic career by participating in the Yomiuri Independent exhibition in 1955 while studying at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. In the 1960s, during a period of post-war social turmoil, he was among a group of artists that formed the "Neo-Dadaism Organizers"overturning conventions with strikingly provocative performances and works of art. His artwork is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Japan.
Pioneering Japanese Pop Art, Shinohara enthusiastically produced works of Imitation Art including "Coca-Cola Plan"(1966), modelled directly after a work of the same title by Robert Rauschenberg, and "Drink More"(1964) borrowing from a piece by Jasper Johns. Shinohara is also known for the much-discussed works of his "Oiran Series"established in 1965, which featured faceless Japanese high-class courtesans painted vibrantly to express his distinctive view of Japanese tradition and inspiration from American Pop Art. Painted in 1966, Shinohara explored the interfaces between traditional and contemporary art in Untitled (Oiran Series) (Lot 466), in which the iconic courtesan head from ukiyo-e is extracted leaving behind only the silhouette; this is playfully merged using brilliant florescent paints with the cock outline, revealing the hidden meaning of the subject in the original ukiyo-e and subverting it’s conventional appreciation. Same series was exhibited in "The World Goes Pop"exhibition at Tate Modern, London in September 2015 to January 2016. Since his move to the United States in 1969, his creations have included a motorbike made of wood and corrugated cardboard, as well as massive paintings with violent brushstrokes to create grotesque images of scenery and crowds of insane dancers. Lot 467 is an iconic example indicating Shinohara's preoccupation with popular culture in the United States and Japan, and his courageous subversion of conventional art since the 1960s.
'Sixties Art' in Japan
Gutai Art Association, Neo-Dadaism Organizer and Mono-ha
The Japanese art world in the 1960s can be described as a "two-layered structure composed of artists affiliated with organizations and un-affiliated artists"1.The rise of artists outside this organizational structure formed the avant-garde art scene with unconventional means of creating art. In opposition to organization-affiliated artists whom were generally accepted as the cultural norm within Japan, avant-garde artists strove to engage with a broader platform in the art world abroad. The increasing interest in the vision of avant-garde Japanese artists is manifested by their participation overseas exhibitions in the 1960s, including Biennales of Venice, Sao Paulo, and Paris.
This represents a complete departure from the period prior to the Second World War when the direction of art was dominated by the Open Participation Organization (Kobo Dantai). Beginning after the war in the 1950s, the new presence of "unattached artists"who exhibited their art in independent exhibitions provided a counterpoint to the Open Participation Organization. In Osaka, various art groups formed by young artists burning with enthusiasm, including the Genbi (Contemporary Art Panel) launched in 1952, Zero Society, and Gutai Art Association active from 1954 to 1972 in the Osaka and Kansai region. Examples in Tokyo including Neo-Dadaism Organizers who overturned institutional art in the 1960s, and later the Mono-ha formed by young artists active from the late 1960s to 1970s who proposed new ideas but with a less antagonistic and political attitude.
Besides the Gutai Art Association, Neo-Dadaism Organizer and Mono-ha in Japan, groups of artists in other parts of the world were trying to bring new vitality to painting in the 1960s, including Art Informel, CoBrA and Arte Povera in Europe, and Abstract Expressionism in the USA.
The Gutai Art Association contributed greatly in fresh form of 'Sixties Art'. Though was not widely recognized by the mainstream opinion leaders of Japan at that time, its direct engagement with the art world overseas brought global exposure to Japanese avant-garde art . By abandoning consciousness, artists from Gutai Art Association—Shozo Shimamoto, Sadamasa Motonaga, Kazuo Shiraga, Tedasaki Matsuta n i — at tempted t o examine the unconscious depths, previously invisible to the rational eye, through their unconventional and physical creative processes. This unprecedented exploration questioned and denied the traditional art forms of painting and sculpture, opening up possibilities for new media in art.
From these Gutai artists mushroomed a diversity of new art forms which expressed the group's core values of freedom, unpredictability and the force of life. Just as Jiro Yoshihara proclaimed in the first issue of the "Gutai"publication, "It is our desire to embody the fact that our spirit is free."2 Named by Shozo Shimamoto, "Gutai"is the made up from two ideograms, 'gu' meaning 'implement' and 'tai' meaning body or form. The link between matter and the body is the energy that passes through it: life. 3 The absence of paint brush and easel in the two-dimensional works featured in Lot 463, 464, 468, 470, 471 and 512 represent the common practice found in the early career of Shimamoto, Shiraga and Motonaga who deviated from conventional painting practices.
1 The Japan Foundation, Art in Japan Today II 1970-1983, Tokyo, 1984, p. 11.
2 Jiro Yoshihara, "On the Occasion of Publication," Gutai No. 1, January 1955.
3 Gabriella Dalesio, 'Introduction', Shozo Shimamoto, Between East and West-Life, the Substance of Art, edition Morra, Napels, Italy, 2014, pp. 10-11.
USHIO SHINOHARA
Oiran Series and Motorcycle
Ushio Shinohara was born in Tokyo in 1932. He started his artistic career by participating in the Yomiuri Independent exhibition in 1955 while studying at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. In the 1960s, during a period of post-war social turmoil, he was among a group of artists that formed the "Neo-Dadaism Organizers"overturning conventions with strikingly provocative performances and works of art. His artwork is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Japan.
Pioneering Japanese Pop Art, Shinohara enthusiastically produced works of Imitation Art including "Coca-Cola Plan"(1966), modelled directly after a work of the same title by Robert Rauschenberg, and "Drink More"(1964) borrowing from a piece by Jasper Johns. Shinohara is also known for the much-discussed works of his "Oiran Series"established in 1965, which featured faceless Japanese high-class courtesans painted vibrantly to express his distinctive view of Japanese tradition and inspiration from American Pop Art. Painted in 1966, Shinohara explored the interfaces between traditional and contemporary art in Untitled (Oiran Series) (Lot 466), in which the iconic courtesan head from ukiyo-e is extracted leaving behind only the silhouette; this is playfully merged using brilliant florescent paints with the cock outline, revealing the hidden meaning of the subject in the original ukiyo-e and subverting it’s conventional appreciation. Same series was exhibited in "The World Goes Pop"exhibition at Tate Modern, London in September 2015 to January 2016. Since his move to the United States in 1969, his creations have included a motorbike made of wood and corrugated cardboard, as well as massive paintings with violent brushstrokes to create grotesque images of scenery and crowds of insane dancers. Lot 467 is an iconic example indicating Shinohara's preoccupation with popular culture in the United States and Japan, and his courageous subversion of conventional art since the 1960s.