.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
After graduating in 1949 from the Sculpture Department of Tokyo Fine Arts School (currently known as the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music), Motonao Takasaki went on to become a member of the Gutai art group in 1966. During this first year, Takasaki's work was included to represent Gutai alongside fellow artists Sadamasa Motonaga, Kazuo Shiraga, and Jiro Yoshihara in the group's first show in the United States. The exhibition as part of the "1st Japan Art Festival" which was held at Union Carbide Building in New York, before traveling to the Gimbel Brothers in Pittsburg, then to The Art Institute of Chicago, and then finally to the M.H. De Young Museum in San Francisco.
Since the 1950s, Takasaki has been taking a methodical approach to creating art that depends on the environment the pieces occupy. He respects the physical properties of the materials themselves, while making subtle commentary on societal structure and larger political climates.
Takasaki's sensibility regarding structure and repetition of geometric shapes can be found in his works executed in the 1960s, including the work exhibited at the 1st Hiroshima Renaissance Art Exhibition in 1969 and Work 1965 (Lot 591). The artist takes a variety of approaches, exploring horizontal and vertical orientations, showing the phenomenological and physical complexity of a single shape in different settings.
As an extremely rare early work by the artist, Work 1965 clearly displays the artist's original concept which later transformed into 'Apparatus' series and then the 'Collapse' series. Takasaki cut out squares of canvas and pasted them onto a backing of black plywood. The order and repetition of the squares originate from the artist's experience of feeling overwhelmed by rows of computers in everyday life. By not flattening the square pieces of canvases onto the plywood, Takasaki 'frees' the corners of each piece, allowing them to subtly curl in the true character of the medium; the effect is a varied and complex visual texture. The adverse effects of Japan's economic miracle have since given way to myriad other concerns, but Takasaki's art shows us that even in an interconnected and depersonalized world, there are, and have always been, ways for individuals to stamp their mark in life.
Within the limited vocabulary of monochrome works, Takasaki creates an immense range with works that vary in elements that he can control, such material and grid size, as well as elements he has little control over, such as the way each square curl. While beautifully revealing the characteristics of the raw materials, Takasaki's process is a stark reminder of the artificial barriers between the viewer and artwork, and indeed all elements in society. Takasaki's works are collected by Miyagi Museum of Art in Sendai, Japan, and published in exhibition catalogue of Gutai: Splendid Playground organized by The Guggenheim Museum, New York. Takasaki's repetition of a single form calls into question the relationship between form, dimension, size and colour, which can be placed in conversation with minimalist sculptures by Donald Judd. A close comparison can also be drawn with the meditative experience one experiences when viewing a mandala.
Since the 1950s, Takasaki has been taking a methodical approach to creating art that depends on the environment the pieces occupy. He respects the physical properties of the materials themselves, while making subtle commentary on societal structure and larger political climates.
Takasaki's sensibility regarding structure and repetition of geometric shapes can be found in his works executed in the 1960s, including the work exhibited at the 1st Hiroshima Renaissance Art Exhibition in 1969 and Work 1965 (Lot 591). The artist takes a variety of approaches, exploring horizontal and vertical orientations, showing the phenomenological and physical complexity of a single shape in different settings.
As an extremely rare early work by the artist, Work 1965 clearly displays the artist's original concept which later transformed into 'Apparatus' series and then the 'Collapse' series. Takasaki cut out squares of canvas and pasted them onto a backing of black plywood. The order and repetition of the squares originate from the artist's experience of feeling overwhelmed by rows of computers in everyday life. By not flattening the square pieces of canvases onto the plywood, Takasaki 'frees' the corners of each piece, allowing them to subtly curl in the true character of the medium; the effect is a varied and complex visual texture. The adverse effects of Japan's economic miracle have since given way to myriad other concerns, but Takasaki's art shows us that even in an interconnected and depersonalized world, there are, and have always been, ways for individuals to stamp their mark in life.
Within the limited vocabulary of monochrome works, Takasaki creates an immense range with works that vary in elements that he can control, such material and grid size, as well as elements he has little control over, such as the way each square curl. While beautifully revealing the characteristics of the raw materials, Takasaki's process is a stark reminder of the artificial barriers between the viewer and artwork, and indeed all elements in society. Takasaki's works are collected by Miyagi Museum of Art in Sendai, Japan, and published in exhibition catalogue of Gutai: Splendid Playground organized by The Guggenheim Museum, New York. Takasaki's repetition of a single form calls into question the relationship between form, dimension, size and colour, which can be placed in conversation with minimalist sculptures by Donald Judd. A close comparison can also be drawn with the meditative experience one experiences when viewing a mandala.