Japanese Gutai

Art 109A: Art Since 1945 Westchester Community College Fall 2012 Dr. Melissa Hall

Global Expressionism The Japanese Gutai Group formed around the Japanese painter Jiro Yoshihara around 1954

Photograph of Gutai Artists. Image source: http://guitai.wordpress.com/

Global Expressionism They were deeply influenced by the work of Jackson Pollock and Georges Mathieu

Photograph of Gutai Artists. Image source: http://guitai.wordpress.com/

Hans Namuth, Jackson Pollock, 1950

Global Expressionism Their understanding was shaped by the Life Magazine photos of the artists working

Dimitri Kessell, Georges Mathieu, 1957 LIFE

Dimitri Kessell, Georges Mathieu, 1957 LIFE

Global Expressionism This shaped the Gutai group’s focus on an action-oriented approach to art making

Shiraga painting with his feet for Life magazine, at the Nishinomiya factory of Yoshihara’s salad oil company, 1956. Image source: http://www.aaa-a.org/2012/01/18/conversation-with-reiko-tomii/

Global Expressionism In 1956 Jiro Yoshiharo published the “Gutai Manifesto” in which he dismissed all past art as “fakes” and “counterfeit objects

Joro Yoshiharo Image source: http://www.zerofoundation.de/friends.html

“With our present awareness, the arts we have known up to now appear to us in general to be fakes fitted out with a tremendous affectation. Let us take leave of these piles of counterfeit objects on the altars, in the palaces, in the salons and the antique shops. ” Jiro Yoshiharo, “Gutai Manifesto,” 1956

Global Expressionism This is because most art disguises the materials from which it is made

Joro Yoshiharo Image source: http://www.zerofoundation.de/friends.html

““These objects are in disguise and their materials such as paint, pieces of cloth, metals, clay or marble are loaded with false significance by human hand and by way of fraud, so that, instead of just presenting their own material, they take on the appearance of something else.” Jiro Yoshiharo, “Gutai Manifesto,” 1956

Global Expressionism The Gutai group emphasized a direct encounter and interaction with materials:

Joro Yoshiharo Image source: http://www.zerofoundation.de/friends.html

“Gutai art does not change the material but brings it to life. Gutai art does not falsify the material. In Gutai art the human spirit and the the material reach out their hands to each other, even though they are otherwise opposed to each other. The material is not absorbed by the spirit. The spirit does not force the material into submission. If one leaves the material as it is, presenting it just as material, then it starts to tell us something and speaks with a mighty voice. Keeping the life of the material alive also means bringing the spirit alive, and lifting up the spirit means leading the material up to the height of the spirit.” Jiro Yoshiharo, “Gutai Manifesto,” 1956

Gutai Group The emphasis on human interaction with materials led to a highly performative approach to art making

Saburo Murakami, Passage, 1956

Gutai Group Saburo Murakami’s Passage was a performance in which the artist burst through a series of paper screens

Saburo Murakami, Passage, 1956

Gutai Group In Challenge to the Mud Kazua Shiraga created a “work” by literally engaging his body with mud

Kazuo Shiraga, Challenge to the Mud, 1955

Gutai Group The work evokes Pollock’s drip paintings as well as Yves Klein’s Living Brush series

Kazuo Shiraga, Challenge to the Mud, 1955

Gutai Group Shiraga also experimented with other methods of making paintings

Kazuo Shiraga, Making Painting with his feet, Second Gutai Exhibition, 1956

Shiraga painting with his feet for Life magazine, at the Nishinomiya factory of Yoshihara’s salad oil company, 1956.

Gutai Group Atsuko Tanaka’s electric dress is one of the icons of the Gutai movement

Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956

Gutai Group It was made from hundreds of flashing lights

Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/85

Gutai Group Like Shigeko Kubota’s Vagina Painting, Tanaka’s Electric Dress anticipates the concerns of Feminist art

Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/85

Gutai Group This piece by Tanaka consists of a silk hanging, activated by a fan

The floor pieces in front were meant to be walked on

Atsuko Tanaka, Sakuhin (Work), 1955

Gutai artist Shozo Shimamoto's work in Venice: "Kono-ue wo Aruite Kudasai (Please walk on top)," and "Sakuhin (Work)" [in backgtround] at Fare Mondi (Making Worlds), la biennale di Venezia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juoqhpCNYDY

Gutai Group The most innovative aspect of Gutai art was their outdoor exhibitions staged in 1955 and 1956

http://www.tofu-magazine.net/newVersion/pages/Gutai56.html

Gutai Group These exhibitions were participatory events similar to Happenings and Fluxus

After the event, the “works” were destroyed

Akira Kanayama , Ashiato, 1956

http://www.nipponlugano.ch/en/gutai-multimedia/narrazione/project/links/Highlights/project/narrazione_home_nav-short.html