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Lot Essay
"I'm no doctor or physiologist, but thinking about art, the expression of the human spirit, as coming down to the body
obsessed me; I couldn't stop thinking about it." – Kazuo Shiraga, "Shishitsu nit suite" (On nature), Gutai , no. 5, October, 1956.
Kazuo Shiraga - Action & Reaction Painting
Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga marked an undeniably significate development in Post-War Art. His initial artistic concept is to reveal the gifted nature of human beings, including spirit and physicality, pressing him to fully engage with the canvas by stepping onto its surface in 1954. The root of this concept can also be traced back to Shiraga's early art performance in 1955 Challenging Mud. The full body becomes the most direct artistic expression in Shiraga's art. In the late 1950s, Shiraga gradually established his artistic concept, developing a system of logic behind his own artistic language. He had strengthened his method of composition,
mastery of contrasting colours, and overall technique. No longer only using his feet to slide paint across a canvas's surface,
Shiraga also began to employ a splashing technique which resulted in an increasingly intricate visual effect. In the mid- 1960s, he began using a wooden rod to enhance the movement of the paint as well.
Action and Reaction Force
Shiraga's explorations of physical motion is different from the work of Western action painters such as Georges Mathieu whose works embody spontaneous energy under the state of unconsciousness enacted upon a canvas. Rather, Shiraga's artistic expression focused on spirit and physicality. Shiraga's paintings successfully transfer and document both the force of his own actions, as well as the effect of the opposing force back on him that is yet unrealized by most viewers. Through this intervention emerges visual evidence of the intangible forces of nature. The traces of oil paint with complicated texture on canvas is unexplainable by past painting
theory. When Shiraga steps onto one of his canvases, holding a rope affixed to the ceiling, the rope counteracts the movement
of his body and feet which he uses to push paint across the canvas's surface. In this way, Shiraga confronts the Laws of Motion in a power struggle not unlike two opponents in a wrestling match. In this context, however, the artist is fighting against himself, using the rope to create both the action and reaction.
Painting with his feet , Shiraga subverted conventional painting method and mainstream standards; in this way he deconstructed theories of the past, establishing his own ground-breaking canon. The canvas was transformed into a free space in which he was liberated from traditional practices and the constraints of convention. Shiraga's true self was released through his free-spirited method of painting which expressed the materiality of oil paint to its fullest extent, spreading, mixing,
and piling the paint using his own body. A strong intensity and venerable energy thus permeates Shiraga's works. This energy is not merely reliant upon bodily action and physicality, but rather the mental force and emotion of the human soul. Just as Jiro
Yoshihara proclaimed in the first issue of Gutai, "It is our desire to embody the fact that our spirit is free". 1
Executed in 1980, Mouka (Mid summer) (Lot 459) comes from the nature series. Various traces such as sporadic colour splash,
silk-like delicate lines on the lower right, raw texture, heavy impasto, fan-shape spread of oil paint are evidence of wrestling
between the artist and oil paint.
In artist's own word when describing his creative process: "60% physical desire and 40% looking at the painting and making a decision." 2 Although free physical momentum is an important element of Shiraga's works, his decision on composition and colour is critical to his innovative images. Apart from the three major colours – yellow, red and black, Shiraga enriched the painting by crimson, cherry, pink red and mandarin red. The triangle-like composition together with colour splashes deliver sense of extension, resembling summer dynamism and energy.
Kazuo Shiraga's works are widely collected by museums across Europe, the United States, and Asia, including Musee National d'Art Moderne- Centre Georges Pompidou, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Walker Art Centre in the United States.
1. "On the Occasion of Publication," Gutai No. 1, January 1955.
2. Kazuo Shiraga and Ichiro Hariu (dialogue), "Kamigata action dangi" (Conversation on action from the Kyoto-Osaka area), Shiraga Kazuo "12 nen no sakuhin kara (Tokyo Gallery, 1973), unpaged.
obsessed me; I couldn't stop thinking about it." – Kazuo Shiraga, "Shishitsu nit suite" (On nature), Gutai , no. 5, October, 1956.
Kazuo Shiraga - Action & Reaction Painting
Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga marked an undeniably significate development in Post-War Art. His initial artistic concept is to reveal the gifted nature of human beings, including spirit and physicality, pressing him to fully engage with the canvas by stepping onto its surface in 1954. The root of this concept can also be traced back to Shiraga's early art performance in 1955 Challenging Mud. The full body becomes the most direct artistic expression in Shiraga's art. In the late 1950s, Shiraga gradually established his artistic concept, developing a system of logic behind his own artistic language. He had strengthened his method of composition,
mastery of contrasting colours, and overall technique. No longer only using his feet to slide paint across a canvas's surface,
Shiraga also began to employ a splashing technique which resulted in an increasingly intricate visual effect. In the mid- 1960s, he began using a wooden rod to enhance the movement of the paint as well.
Action and Reaction Force
Shiraga's explorations of physical motion is different from the work of Western action painters such as Georges Mathieu whose works embody spontaneous energy under the state of unconsciousness enacted upon a canvas. Rather, Shiraga's artistic expression focused on spirit and physicality. Shiraga's paintings successfully transfer and document both the force of his own actions, as well as the effect of the opposing force back on him that is yet unrealized by most viewers. Through this intervention emerges visual evidence of the intangible forces of nature. The traces of oil paint with complicated texture on canvas is unexplainable by past painting
theory. When Shiraga steps onto one of his canvases, holding a rope affixed to the ceiling, the rope counteracts the movement
of his body and feet which he uses to push paint across the canvas's surface. In this way, Shiraga confronts the Laws of Motion in a power struggle not unlike two opponents in a wrestling match. In this context, however, the artist is fighting against himself, using the rope to create both the action and reaction.
Painting with his feet , Shiraga subverted conventional painting method and mainstream standards; in this way he deconstructed theories of the past, establishing his own ground-breaking canon. The canvas was transformed into a free space in which he was liberated from traditional practices and the constraints of convention. Shiraga's true self was released through his free-spirited method of painting which expressed the materiality of oil paint to its fullest extent, spreading, mixing,
and piling the paint using his own body. A strong intensity and venerable energy thus permeates Shiraga's works. This energy is not merely reliant upon bodily action and physicality, but rather the mental force and emotion of the human soul. Just as Jiro
Yoshihara proclaimed in the first issue of Gutai, "It is our desire to embody the fact that our spirit is free". 1
Executed in 1980, Mouka (Mid summer) (Lot 459) comes from the nature series. Various traces such as sporadic colour splash,
silk-like delicate lines on the lower right, raw texture, heavy impasto, fan-shape spread of oil paint are evidence of wrestling
between the artist and oil paint.
In artist's own word when describing his creative process: "60% physical desire and 40% looking at the painting and making a decision." 2 Although free physical momentum is an important element of Shiraga's works, his decision on composition and colour is critical to his innovative images. Apart from the three major colours – yellow, red and black, Shiraga enriched the painting by crimson, cherry, pink red and mandarin red. The triangle-like composition together with colour splashes deliver sense of extension, resembling summer dynamism and energy.
Kazuo Shiraga's works are widely collected by museums across Europe, the United States, and Asia, including Musee National d'Art Moderne- Centre Georges Pompidou, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Walker Art Centre in the United States.
1. "On the Occasion of Publication," Gutai No. 1, January 1955.
2. Kazuo Shiraga and Ichiro Hariu (dialogue), "Kamigata action dangi" (Conversation on action from the Kyoto-Osaka area), Shiraga Kazuo "12 nen no sakuhin kara (Tokyo Gallery, 1973), unpaged.