CategoriesStyles and Movements
Gutai
Japanese artists' association founded near Osaka in 1954 that pushed painting into performance, outdoor installation and raw physical matter.
No works indexed yet · 10 related artists
No open-access works for Gutai are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
The Gutai Art Association was formed in 1954 in Ashiya, near Osaka, by the painter Jirō Yoshihara, who pressed his younger members never to imitate anyone. The name suggests 'embodiment', and in the years after Japan's defeat the group wanted materials and physical action to speak for themselves.
Early actions were startling. Kazuo Shiraga wrestled a heap of mud in Challenging Mud (1955) and painted with his feet while swinging from a rope. Saburō Murakami burst through paper screens stretched on frames. Atsuko Tanaka made Electric Dress (1956) from coloured light bulbs and wiring, and Shōzō Shimamoto hurled bottles of paint at canvases. The group held open-air exhibitions in a seaside pine grove, put on theatre performances and published a journal that reached artists abroad. From the late 1950s members concentrated more on painting, and the association dissolved in 1972 after Yoshihara's death.
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