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Lot Essay
"Recently, I drew mostly circles. … Therein lies an infinite possibility left unknown, lurking from a bottomless pit". 1
－JIRO YOSHIHARA
In 1934, on one of Foujita's visit back to Japan, Yoshihara showed him some paintings with Surrealist leanings. The discussion with Fujita inspired Yoshihara to pursue originality and vowed never to imitate anymore, do what has never been done before. He made this a central tenet of his artistic practice and passed it on as his most enduring legacy to the members of the Gutai group. In the early 1960s, Yoshihara gradually made move toward Circle. The first circle that indicates Yoshihara's move toward Circle was created in 1962. Circle was no orientalist project , rather it is the infinite possibility Yoshihara found in circle and the reconstruction of the Japanese art world coincided with the implementation of new economic, political and cultural systems, and its participation in the international art world.
1 Yoshihara Jiro, “Koten no tame no bunsho＂ [a text for solo exhibition], in Yoshihara Jiro, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Tokyo Gallery, 1967); reprinted in Botsugo 20 nen Yoshihara Jiro ten, 205.
－JIRO YOSHIHARA
In 1934, on one of Foujita's visit back to Japan, Yoshihara showed him some paintings with Surrealist leanings. The discussion with Fujita inspired Yoshihara to pursue originality and vowed never to imitate anymore, do what has never been done before. He made this a central tenet of his artistic practice and passed it on as his most enduring legacy to the members of the Gutai group. In the early 1960s, Yoshihara gradually made move toward Circle. The first circle that indicates Yoshihara's move toward Circle was created in 1962. Circle was no orientalist project , rather it is the infinite possibility Yoshihara found in circle and the reconstruction of the Japanese art world coincided with the implementation of new economic, political and cultural systems, and its participation in the international art world.
1 Yoshihara Jiro, “Koten no tame no bunsho＂ [a text for solo exhibition], in Yoshihara Jiro, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Tokyo Gallery, 1967); reprinted in Botsugo 20 nen Yoshihara Jiro ten, 205.