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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.
SADAMASA MOTONAGA
Work；Dew (Drop) Is Three
As one of the key members of the Gutai Art Group, Motonaga's work was dedicated to explorat ions of materiality and creative method. Motonaga (1922-2011) explored the pouring technique from the late-1950s to mid-1960s; his method involved carefully layering diluted enamel paint and tilting canvas slightly. Though the forms were abstract, Motonaga carefully planned out each of his works: "I draw forms first. When I pour paint, I don't know where it will go…I drew many forms in notebooks. Where to pour paint and such."1 By strategically applying paint to different parts of the canvas before letting gravity and time do its work, Motonaga achieved a balance between the conflicting elements of randomness and control. Such effect is similar to tarashikomi, a traditional technique utilized in Japanese nihonga painting in which darker ink is dripped into a lighter ink wash, resulting in a blurred, pooling, and spreading effect, thus introducing a subtle naturalism to paintings. In Work , 1966 (Lot 468), the spreading and mixing of enamel paint appears frozen in time, caught in a state halfway between order and entropy. The bright, contrasting colours of orange, yellow, deep blue, and fuchsia have begun to blend, provoking a sense of lightness and movement. In opposition to that, the heavy use of black paint particularly emphasizes sense of weight and pause.
Motonaga's stay in the United States in 1966-1967 inspired his stylistic departure to a much simpler form. The process of simplification further extended to the reduction of paint texture into refined smooth surface through airbrushing. The proportion of form, colour combination, colour gradation, colour contrast on the flat surface in Dew (Drop) Is Three (Lot 469) constructed an impactful and positive graphic statement.
1 Museum of Modern Art, "Interview with Motonaga Sadamasa," post, 2014. https://post.at.moma.org/content_items/377-interview-with-motonagasadamasa
'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.
SADAMASA MOTONAGA
Work；Dew (Drop) Is Three
As one of the key members of the Gutai Art Group, Motonaga's work was dedicated to explorat ions of materiality and creative method. Motonaga (1922-2011) explored the pouring technique from the late-1950s to mid-1960s; his method involved carefully layering diluted enamel paint and tilting canvas slightly. Though the forms were abstract, Motonaga carefully planned out each of his works: "I draw forms first. When I pour paint, I don't know where it will go…I drew many forms in notebooks. Where to pour paint and such."1 By strategically applying paint to different parts of the canvas before letting gravity and time do its work, Motonaga achieved a balance between the conflicting elements of randomness and control. Such effect is similar to tarashikomi, a traditional technique utilized in Japanese nihonga painting in which darker ink is dripped into a lighter ink wash, resulting in a blurred, pooling, and spreading effect, thus introducing a subtle naturalism to paintings. In Work , 1966 (Lot 468), the spreading and mixing of enamel paint appears frozen in time, caught in a state halfway between order and entropy. The bright, contrasting colours of orange, yellow, deep blue, and fuchsia have begun to blend, provoking a sense of lightness and movement. In opposition to that, the heavy use of black paint particularly emphasizes sense of weight and pause.
Motonaga's stay in the United States in 1966-1967 inspired his stylistic departure to a much simpler form. The process of simplification further extended to the reduction of paint texture into refined smooth surface through airbrushing. The proportion of form, colour combination, colour gradation, colour contrast on the flat surface in Dew (Drop) Is Three (Lot 469) constructed an impactful and positive graphic statement.
1 Museum of Modern Art, "Interview with Motonaga Sadamasa," post, 2014. https://post.at.moma.org/content_items/377-interview-with-motonagasadamasa