Gutai group
Encyclopedia
The Gutai group was an artistic movement and association of artists founded (according to most sources) by Jiro Yoshihara
in Japan
in 1954. According to the official website of Shozo Shimamoto
, Shimamoto and Yoshihara founded Gutai together in 1954, and it was Shimamoto who suggested the name Gutai, which means (again, according to this source) “concrete” (as opposed to abstract/theoretical) http://www.shozo.net/prof/indexe.html.
Museum of Art & History http://web.archive.org/web/20070630202927/http://www.ashiya-web.or.jp/museum/10us/103education/nyumon_us/manifest_us.htm. Among its preoccupations, the manifesto expresses a fascination with the beauty that arises when things become damaged or decayed. The process of damage or destruction is celebrated as a way of revealing the inner "life" of a given material or object:
"Yet what is interesting in this respect is the novel beauty to be found in works of art and architecture of the past which have changed their appearance due to the damage of time or destruction by disasters in the course of the centuries. This is described as the beauty of decay, but is it not perhaps that beauty which material assumes when it is freed from artificial make-up and reveals its original characteristics? The fact that the ruins receive us warmly and kindly after all, and that they attract us with their cracks and flaking surfaces, could this not really be a sign of the material taking revenge, having recaptured its original life?...." http://www.ashiya-web.or.jp/museum/en/103education/nyumon_us/manifest_us.htm
, Akira Kanayama, and others. A formative influence on the later Fluxus
movement, the group was also associated with certain European (particularly French
) art world figures such as Georges Mathieu
and Michel Tapié
, and with tachisme
("art informel"). According to the Tate Gallery
's online art glossary, Gutai artists also "created a series of striking works anticipating later Happening
s and Performance
and Conceptual art
." http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=130 Gutai artists also created works that would now be called installations
, inspiring the work of non-Japanese artists such as Allan Kaprow
and Conrad Bo
, and leading to the later Fluxus
network.
The Tate article records that "the group dissolved in 1972 following the death of Yoshihara."
Jiro Yoshihara
Jiro Yoshihara was a Japanese painter. He is in most sources named as the founder of the Gutai group in 1954. Yoshihara wrote the "Gutai Manifesto" in 1956. This leader of the "Gutai" group - a group of internationally acclaimed avant-garde artists representative of Japan's post-war art world...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1954. According to the official website of Shozo Shimamoto
Shozo Shimamoto
Shozo Shimamoto, born in Osaka in 1928, is a Japanese artist. He was an early member of the avant garde Gutai group founded in the 1950s, and his works are in museum collections such as those of the Tate Gallery and the Tate Modern and the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe, Japan...
, Shimamoto and Yoshihara founded Gutai together in 1954, and it was Shimamoto who suggested the name Gutai, which means (again, according to this source) “concrete” (as opposed to abstract/theoretical) http://www.shozo.net/prof/indexe.html.
The Gutai Manifesto
Yoshihara wrote the manifesto for the Gutai group in 1956. The full text of the "Gutai Manifesto" is available in English at the website of Japan's Ashiya CityAshiya, Hyogo
is a city founded on November 10, 1940 located in Hyōgo, Japan, between the cities of Osaka and Kobe.-Demographics:As of 2009, the city has an estimated population of 93,094 and the density of 5,030 persons per km². The total area is 18.47 km²...
Museum of Art & History http://web.archive.org/web/20070630202927/http://www.ashiya-web.or.jp/museum/10us/103education/nyumon_us/manifest_us.htm. Among its preoccupations, the manifesto expresses a fascination with the beauty that arises when things become damaged or decayed. The process of damage or destruction is celebrated as a way of revealing the inner "life" of a given material or object:
"Yet what is interesting in this respect is the novel beauty to be found in works of art and architecture of the past which have changed their appearance due to the damage of time or destruction by disasters in the course of the centuries. This is described as the beauty of decay, but is it not perhaps that beauty which material assumes when it is freed from artificial make-up and reveals its original characteristics? The fact that the ruins receive us warmly and kindly after all, and that they attract us with their cracks and flaking surfaces, could this not really be a sign of the material taking revenge, having recaptured its original life?...." http://www.ashiya-web.or.jp/museum/en/103education/nyumon_us/manifest_us.htm
Influence
In addition to Yoshihara and Shimamoto, members of the Gutai group included Sadamasa Motonaga :fr:Sadamasa Motonaga, Atsuko TanakaAtsuko Tanaka (artist)
Atsuko Tanaka was a pioneering Japanese avant-garde artist.-Biography:She was born in Osaka, on February 10, 1932.. She went to several local art schools where she worked in mostly figurative mode...
, Akira Kanayama, and others. A formative influence on the later Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
movement, the group was also associated with certain European (particularly French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) art world figures such as Georges Mathieu
Georges Mathieu
Georges Mathieu is a French painter in the style of lyrical abstraction.-Biography:He was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and gained an international reputation in the 1950s as a leading Abstract Expressionist. His large paintings are created very rapidly and impulsively...
and Michel Tapié
Michel Tapié
Michel Tapié was an internationally active French critic, curator, and collector of art. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "tachisme", which is generally regarded as the European equivalent of abstract expressionism...
, and with tachisme
Tachisme
Tachisme is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often considered to be the European equivalent to abstract expressionism...
("art informel"). According to the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
's online art glossary, Gutai artists also "created a series of striking works anticipating later Happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s and Performance
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and Conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
." http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=130 Gutai artists also created works that would now be called installations
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, inspiring the work of non-Japanese artists such as Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. His Happenings - some 200 of them - evolved over the years...
and Conrad Bo
Conrad Bo
Michiel Conrad Botha better known as Conrad Bo is a South African Artist, the founder of The Superstroke Art Movement....
, and leading to the later Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
network.
The Tate article records that "the group dissolved in 1972 following the death of Yoshihara."
See also
- Jiro YoshiharaJiro YoshiharaJiro Yoshihara was a Japanese painter. He is in most sources named as the founder of the Gutai group in 1954. Yoshihara wrote the "Gutai Manifesto" in 1956. This leader of the "Gutai" group - a group of internationally acclaimed avant-garde artists representative of Japan's post-war art world...
- Shozo ShimamotoShozo ShimamotoShozo Shimamoto, born in Osaka in 1928, is a Japanese artist. He was an early member of the avant garde Gutai group founded in the 1950s, and his works are in museum collections such as those of the Tate Gallery and the Tate Modern and the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe, Japan...
- Atsuko Tanaka (artist)Atsuko Tanaka (artist)Atsuko Tanaka was a pioneering Japanese avant-garde artist.-Biography:She was born in Osaka, on February 10, 1932.. She went to several local art schools where she worked in mostly figurative mode...
- Kazuo Shiraga
- FluxusFluxusFluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
- Installation artInstallation artInstallation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
- Georges MathieuGeorges MathieuGeorges Mathieu is a French painter in the style of lyrical abstraction.-Biography:He was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and gained an international reputation in the 1950s as a leading Abstract Expressionist. His large paintings are created very rapidly and impulsively...
- Michel TapiéMichel TapiéMichel Tapié was an internationally active French critic, curator, and collector of art. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "tachisme", which is generally regarded as the European equivalent of abstract expressionism...
- Anti-artAnti-artAnti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
External links
- The Gutai Archive
- Material on Shimamoto
- Fluxusgenova.org historical essay on Fluxus, mentioning formative influence of "Gutaj" [sic] group
- UNESCO biographical information on Atsuko Tanaka: "...Performances featuring different costumes were the main characteristic of her work with the Gutaj Group."
- Tate Gallery: article on Gutai
- Website of the Ashiya City Museum of Art & History
- Complete text of the Gutai Manifesto (provided in English translation by the Ashiya City Museum website)
- ZERO foundation
- ZERO group
- Venice Biennale