Structure and Imagery

From the Press Release: Gutai Spirit Forever  emphasizes the continuous commitment of the artist to both the philosophical and ethical statements of the Gutai group. The exhibition consists of two parts:  Part 1: Works from 1964 to 1976 , which will be on view from February 7th to March 16th, 2013 and  Part 2: Works from 1977 to 2013 , running from March 21st through April 20th, 2013. Born in Osaka in 1937, Matsutani began his artistic exploration in 1956 with  Nihonga , a traditional Japanese painting genre. His paintings soon veered away from this time honored style, as his subject matter became more abstract.  Matsutani began experimenting with vinyl wood glue, which allowed the introduction of the third dimension into his paintings. In 1960, Matsutani participated in his first exhibition with the Gutai group in the Pinacotheca Gutai. He had become a member and was exhibited regularly until the dissolution of the group in 19...

Jiro Yoshihara, 1965 Jiro Yoshihara, 1965 (detail) Jiro Yoshihara, 1965 Atsuko Tanaka, 1956 Saburo Murakami, 1963 Saburo Murakami, 1963 (detail) Saburo Murakami, 1963 (detail) Saburo Murakami, 1957 From the Press Release New York, NY… After World War II, a devastated Japan processed the impact of the atomic bomb and faced a cultural void. It was in this atmosphere of existential alienation that the Gutai Art Association (Gutai Bijutsu Kyokai) – a group of about twenty young artists, rallying around the charismatic painter Jiro Yoshihara – emerged in the mid-1950s to challenge convention. Although keenly aware of Japan’s artistic traditions, the Gutai artists attempted to distance themselves from the sense of defeat and impotence that pervaded their country, and to overcome the past completely with ‘art that has never existed before’. They burst out of the expected confines of painting with daring works that demonstrated a freewheeling r...