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Lot Essay
THE THING ITSELF
The diversified development of new art form in the 1960s triggered Mono-ha [School of Things] movement in Japan. The movement although had a short duration from 1968 through the early 1970s, had a pivotal effect on Japanese contemporary art. Challenging pre-existing concept about material and space, Mono-ha artists utilised raw, unworked materials such as bare wood, stone, clay, or water, and sought to draw out an artistic expression by arranging them, often temporarily and with minimal manipulation, within an environment. Central to Mono-ha thought was a desire to create a contemporary Asian art free from what the artists considered to be Japan's unquestioning absorption of International Modernism. In addition they also rejected the use of Asian motifs (such as those derived from Buddhism or Zen) which could be considered derivative.
At the centre of the group was artist-philosopher Lee Ufan (B. 1936) and graduates of Tama Art University – Nobuo Sekine, Kishio Suga, Katsuro Yoshida, Susumu Koshimizu, and Katsuhiko Narita. Mono-ha officially emerged in October 1968 with Nobuo Sekine's outdoor site-specific work "Phrase – Mother Earth ", a large cylinder of packed soil saturated beside a cylindrical hole in the ground the same shape and size, from where it came. In doing so he rendered earth as earth with minimal intervention. Lee Ufan's commentaries on the work, which were subsequently published in art magazines, developed the concept further. As a result artists came together, meeting regularly at a cafe in Tokyo to discuss and debate the thinking central to Mono-ha.
Further works followed, such as Nobuo Sekine's "Phrase of Nothingness ", a series of works which began in 1969 (fig. 1). Exhibited in the "35th Venice Biennale" in 1970, the monumental sculpture titled Phase of Nothingness brought Sekine first international recognition. It resembles a rock garden suspended in air, inducing a tension between the natural and the surreal.
Sekine's interests in environment and his exploration between nature and super-nature found in the unique sculpture of Phase of Nothingness — From Pyramid to Pyramid (1976) (Lot 525) which consists of two pyramid-shape bronze sculptures – the small one looks as if derived from the bigger one, on one hand suggesting the fundamental formation of form, on the other hand suggestion the nurturing power of nature from which all thing comes.
The artist's attempt to present the natural state through a filter of artificiality is demonstrated in the A Certain Life, 2009 (Lot 524) where strong contradiction is created between the supposedly refined and grand material of gold leaf and the spontaneous creases, holes and scratches on the surface. The intentional interference of surface reveals the materiality and vulnerability of the gold leaf itself. The blue, turquoise and black organic forms further present a contrast between the fineness and the blemish on the same material. In Sekine's own words: "I want to brush the dust of names and concepts from material objects and show the infinite reality of the objects themselves in their natural state". The increasing concern on colour and form can also be found in the attention-grabbing red rectangular shape on the drawing titled Red Window, 1999 (Lot 526) and the most recent works by the artist.
The diversified development of new art form in the 1960s triggered Mono-ha [School of Things] movement in Japan. The movement although had a short duration from 1968 through the early 1970s, had a pivotal effect on Japanese contemporary art. Challenging pre-existing concept about material and space, Mono-ha artists utilised raw, unworked materials such as bare wood, stone, clay, or water, and sought to draw out an artistic expression by arranging them, often temporarily and with minimal manipulation, within an environment. Central to Mono-ha thought was a desire to create a contemporary Asian art free from what the artists considered to be Japan's unquestioning absorption of International Modernism. In addition they also rejected the use of Asian motifs (such as those derived from Buddhism or Zen) which could be considered derivative.
At the centre of the group was artist-philosopher Lee Ufan (B. 1936) and graduates of Tama Art University – Nobuo Sekine, Kishio Suga, Katsuro Yoshida, Susumu Koshimizu, and Katsuhiko Narita. Mono-ha officially emerged in October 1968 with Nobuo Sekine's outdoor site-specific work "Phrase – Mother Earth ", a large cylinder of packed soil saturated beside a cylindrical hole in the ground the same shape and size, from where it came. In doing so he rendered earth as earth with minimal intervention. Lee Ufan's commentaries on the work, which were subsequently published in art magazines, developed the concept further. As a result artists came together, meeting regularly at a cafe in Tokyo to discuss and debate the thinking central to Mono-ha.
Further works followed, such as Nobuo Sekine's "Phrase of Nothingness ", a series of works which began in 1969 (fig. 1). Exhibited in the "35th Venice Biennale" in 1970, the monumental sculpture titled Phase of Nothingness brought Sekine first international recognition. It resembles a rock garden suspended in air, inducing a tension between the natural and the surreal.
Sekine's interests in environment and his exploration between nature and super-nature found in the unique sculpture of Phase of Nothingness — From Pyramid to Pyramid (1976) (Lot 525) which consists of two pyramid-shape bronze sculptures – the small one looks as if derived from the bigger one, on one hand suggesting the fundamental formation of form, on the other hand suggestion the nurturing power of nature from which all thing comes.
The artist's attempt to present the natural state through a filter of artificiality is demonstrated in the A Certain Life, 2009 (Lot 524) where strong contradiction is created between the supposedly refined and grand material of gold leaf and the spontaneous creases, holes and scratches on the surface. The intentional interference of surface reveals the materiality and vulnerability of the gold leaf itself. The blue, turquoise and black organic forms further present a contrast between the fineness and the blemish on the same material. In Sekine's own words: "I want to brush the dust of names and concepts from material objects and show the infinite reality of the objects themselves in their natural state". The increasing concern on colour and form can also be found in the attention-grabbing red rectangular shape on the drawing titled Red Window, 1999 (Lot 526) and the most recent works by the artist.