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

2. 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/

3. 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

4. Global Expressionism
Their understanding was shaped by
the Life Magazine photos of the
artists working
Dimitri Kessell, Georges Mathieu, 1957
LIFE

5. Dimitri Kessell, Georges Mathieu, 1957
LIFE

6. 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/

7. Global Expressionism
In 1956 Jiro Yoshiharo published
the “Gutai Manifesto” in which he
dismissed all past art as “fakes”
and “counterfeit objects
“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
Joro Yoshiharo
Image source: http://www.zerofoundation.de/friends.html

8. Global Expressionism
This is because most art disguises
the materials from which it is made
““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
Joro Yoshiharo
Image source: http://www.zerofoundation.de/friends.html

9. Global Expressionism
The Gutai group emphasized a
direct encounter and interaction
with materials:
“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 Joro Yoshiharo
the spirit alive, and lifting up the spirit Image source: http://www.zerofoundation.de/friends.html
means leading the material up to the
height of the spirit.”
Jiro Yoshiharo, “Gutai Manifesto,” 1956

10. Gutai Group
The emphasis on human interaction
with materials led to a highly
performative approach to art
making
Saburo Murakami, Passage, 1956

11. Gutai Group
Saburo Murakami’s Passage was a
performance in which the artist
burst through a series of paper
screens
Saburo Murakami, Passage, 1956

12. 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

13. 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

14. Gutai Group
Shiraga also experimented with
other methods of making paintings
Shiraga painting with his feet for Life magazine,
at the Nishinomiya factory of Yoshihara’s salad oil
company, 1956.
Kazuo Shiraga, Making Painting with his feet, Second Gutai
Exhibition, 1956

15. Gutai Group
Atsuko Tanaka’s electric dress is
one of the icons of the Gutai
movement
Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956

16. Gutai Group
It was made from hundreds of
flashing lights
Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/85

19. Gutai Group
Like Shigeko Kubota’s Vagina
Painting, Tanaka’s Electric Dress
anticipates the concerns of
Feminist art
Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/85

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. Gutai Group
These exhibitions were
participatory events similar to
Happenings and Fluxus
After the event, the “works” were
destroyed
Akira Kanayama , Ashiato, 1956

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