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Lot Essay
Shozo Shimamoto was a co-founder of Gutai, and had attended the entire Gutai exhibitions. He studied painting under Jiro Yoshihara while attending the Academy of Letters at Kwansei Gakuin University. He is renowned for his way of making painting. He packed paints in bottles and fired by a small hand-made canon, allowing paints to splash over the canvas. Sometimes he dropped paints from a model helicopter, a painting process not unlike performance. It is said that such performance art is partially derived from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In fact, this type of creation method is more congenial to the idea as stated in the "Gutai Art Manifesto": "Gutai art proposes that artist's mind does not intend alter material substance but to help bring forth the intrinsic characteristics of the very material."
While Western abstract artists never moved beyond traditional mediums such as oil paint, water color and pencil, Shozo Shimamoto has braved many innovative materials as the creative outlet of his feelings. In 1993's Untitled (Lot 70), Shozo splashed enamel paint on broken glasses. He cleverly used the glossy and hard texture of dried enamel paint to heighten the piece's visual impact. The collage of broken glasses volumized the texture of sculpture, affecting a drastically different beauty from that of the two-dimensional paintings. Colorful expressions are also one of the best vehicles for manifesting materials' intrinsic qualities. Blue and red are two of the three primary colors. They are expressive, direct and powerful, and they produce the most awe-inspiring combination in nature (Fig. 1). Blue and red take up nearly three quarters of the expanse in Untitled, the effect is straightforward and compelling. Their encounter produces a more violent visual impact. The void on the bottom right extends the viewer's visual depth. Aided by the liberal splashes, the splattering lines and oil paint, Shozo Shimamoto allows the colors to speak for themselves.
As a younger-generation Gutai artist, Tsuyoshi Maekawa also studied under Jiro Yoshihara and had participated in all of the shows since the 8th Gutai exhibition. His abstract paintings in the 1960s feature a combination of techniques, including splashing, dripping and tainting, to add extra dimensions and variations to the piece. Tsuyoshi Maekawa's works exhibit richer variations and more sophisticated perceptions; compared with those by the first-generation Gutai artists he is able to present an image much richer in formal variations and more nuanced in perception. Take Yoko no Mitsu no Sen (Lot 71) for instance: other than the shape in the centre, one cannot find any strokes that resemble straight lines. Using arcs of various widths, colors and forms, he puts together an abstract feast of movement and rhythm. Despite the lack of the stunning presence unique to gestural painting in Untitled, Yoko no Mitsu no Sen is much more harmonious, rich with essence. Translucent, flimsy emerald green and bright yellow add to the work's understated grace, making this piece one-of-a-kind in Gutai.
In Maekawa's abstract paintings, the coloration sometimes tends to be geared toward soft, subdued tone, exhibiting a sense of color more congenial to Japanese traditional culture.
While Western abstract artists never moved beyond traditional mediums such as oil paint, water color and pencil, Shozo Shimamoto has braved many innovative materials as the creative outlet of his feelings. In 1993's Untitled (Lot 70), Shozo splashed enamel paint on broken glasses. He cleverly used the glossy and hard texture of dried enamel paint to heighten the piece's visual impact. The collage of broken glasses volumized the texture of sculpture, affecting a drastically different beauty from that of the two-dimensional paintings. Colorful expressions are also one of the best vehicles for manifesting materials' intrinsic qualities. Blue and red are two of the three primary colors. They are expressive, direct and powerful, and they produce the most awe-inspiring combination in nature (Fig. 1). Blue and red take up nearly three quarters of the expanse in Untitled, the effect is straightforward and compelling. Their encounter produces a more violent visual impact. The void on the bottom right extends the viewer's visual depth. Aided by the liberal splashes, the splattering lines and oil paint, Shozo Shimamoto allows the colors to speak for themselves.
As a younger-generation Gutai artist, Tsuyoshi Maekawa also studied under Jiro Yoshihara and had participated in all of the shows since the 8th Gutai exhibition. His abstract paintings in the 1960s feature a combination of techniques, including splashing, dripping and tainting, to add extra dimensions and variations to the piece. Tsuyoshi Maekawa's works exhibit richer variations and more sophisticated perceptions; compared with those by the first-generation Gutai artists he is able to present an image much richer in formal variations and more nuanced in perception. Take Yoko no Mitsu no Sen (Lot 71) for instance: other than the shape in the centre, one cannot find any strokes that resemble straight lines. Using arcs of various widths, colors and forms, he puts together an abstract feast of movement and rhythm. Despite the lack of the stunning presence unique to gestural painting in Untitled, Yoko no Mitsu no Sen is much more harmonious, rich with essence. Translucent, flimsy emerald green and bright yellow add to the work's understated grace, making this piece one-of-a-kind in Gutai.
In Maekawa's abstract paintings, the coloration sometimes tends to be geared toward soft, subdued tone, exhibiting a sense of color more congenial to Japanese traditional culture.