Kazuo Shiraga

(1924 - 2008)

Signature, title and date in japanese on the reverse

Provenance:
Art U Gallery, Osaka as per label on the reverse and as per certificate;
Private collection, Naples

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«I want to paint as if I were running in a battlefield, striving to collapse from exhaustion» (Kazuo Shiraga, 1955)

The art of Kazuo Shiraga (Amagasaki, 1924 - 2008) is deeply influenced by the post-war Japan socio-cultural landscape. In 1952 he founded the first Japanese avant-garde group, the Zero-Kai. The group argued that art had to start again from the absolute zero point in order to develop according to its personal inclination. Later, in 1955, he joined the Gutai group: the group’s fundamental idea was the supremacy of matter and action over thought, scheme and composition; an idea that manifests itself both in the artist’s performances and works. In these years, in fact, his works are a response to war and violence: Shiraga will start an energetic painting that will materialize, in the 60s, the use of the whole body as a means to paint. In the 1970s a sense of calm and grace began to pervade his works, after studying to become an esoteric Buddhist monk. His paintings thus became a combination of consciousness and unconsciousness, a union of spontaneity and formalism. (Based on "Gruppo Gutai. A constantly growing market", by Martina Gambillara, Artribune, 18 November 2018)

In the final years of her artistic career, Shiraga’s works began to take on a serene vigor, with bright colors applied joyfully on the canvas, as if to demonstrate an exorcism of demons fought in the past. It is a perfect example "Festival dance", the bright and colorful acrylic on paper dated 1994 presented here.