In the aftermath of World War II, Japan grappled with the profound repercussions of the atomic bomb and navigated a landscape of cultural uncertainty. From this environment of existential questioning emerged the Gutai Art Association (Gutai Bijutsu Kyokai) in the mid-1950s. Led by the visionary painter Jiro Yoshihara, this collective of approximately twenty young artists sought to defy artistic norms. While deeply aware of Japan’s rich artistic heritage, the Gutai artists aimed to transcend the national sense of defeat and powerlessness, forging a new path with ‘art that has never existed before’. They fearlessly expanded the boundaries of traditional painting, creating dynamic works that explored the relationship between art, the human body, space, and time. Despite initial dismissal by Japanese critics who deemed them mere spectacle creators, the Gutai artists left behind a significant legacy of artistic experimentation, profoundly impacting Western critics and foreshadowing movements like Abstract Expressionism, Arte Povera, Fluxus, and Conceptual Art.
69th Street showcased over 30 works spanning two decades, each a compelling response to the limitations of painting and the constraints of time itself.
Curated by Midori Nishizawa and organized in collaboration with Olivier Renaud-Clément, ‘A Visual Essay on Gutai’ also commemorated the half-century mark since Gutai’s inaugural U.S. exhibition. This earlier exhibition was orchestrated by the French critic Michel Tapié, a renowned advocate for Art Informel. Tapié’s ‘6th Gutai Art Exhibition’ debuted in New York City in September 1958 at the Martha Jackson Gallery, located at 32 East 69th Street – the very townhouse now occupied by Hauser & Wirth New York. This historical connection to 69th Street adds a layer of significance to Hauser & Wirth’s exploration of Gutai art.
‘A Visual Essay on Gutai’ remained on display at the gallery on 69th Street until October 27 and was accompanied by a new publication. This publication’s concept and design were inspired by the twelve Gutai journals that the group self-published and circulated internationally between 1955 and 1965, further cementing the movement’s global reach.
The Gutai Art Association was founded by Jiro Yoshihara in July 1954 in the Ashiya region of Japan. Yoshihara spurred his younger peers with powerful slogans like, ‘Don’t imitate others!’ and ‘Engage in the newness!’. He challenged Gutai members to reject conventional artistic practices and to pursue not only novel modes of expression but also the very essence of artistic creation. The Gutai artists responded with performances, installations, flower arrangements, and music, often taking their art into public spaces. To define this constantly evolving body of work, Yoshihara authored The Gutai Art Manifesto in 1956. In it, he proclaimed ‘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…that beauty which material assumes when it is freed from artificial make-up and reveals its original characteristics.’ Yoshihara concluded the Manifesto by stating, ‘Our work is the result of investigating the possibilities of calling the material to life. We shall hope that there is always a fresh spirit in our Gutai exhibitions and that the discovery of new life will call forth a tremendous scream in the material itself’.
In their pursuit of Yoshihara’s objectives, the Gutai group discovered that the elements necessary for creating unprecedented art were surprisingly found in everyday contexts. Kazuo Shiraga immersed himself in mud, Saburo Murakami dramatically broke through paper screens, and Atsuko Tanaka incorporated bells and light bulbs into theatrical performances. Alongside these radical explorations, Gutai artists continued to grapple with the traditional materials and physical limitations of classic painting techniques, exploring abstraction as a means to break free from its intellectual and creative constraints. In ‘A Visual Essay on Gutai’, visitors to Hauser & Wirth at 69th Street encountered works that existed in a liminal space between painting and sculpture. Stretched canvas was combined with acrylic, plastic, cloth, vinyl, resin, plaster, tin, and even projected light. Notably, works by Tsuruko Yamazaki, Norio Imai, and Takesada Matsutani challenged the traditional picture plane with cloud-like tin projections, white molded openings, and smooth vinyl and resin forms, respectively.
Kazuo Shiraga is perhaps the most internationally recognized Gutai artist. ‘A Visual Essay on Gutai’ at 69th Street featured two of his powerful ‘Performance Paintings’ – intense abstractions from the early 1960s rendered in crimson and green. ‘I want to paint as though rushing around a battle field’, he wrote in 1955. Reflecting this sentiment, he even used his feet to create these dynamic works, capturing the immediacy of creation.
The exhibition at 69th Street also included two significant paintings by Atsuko Tanaka, the most internationally acclaimed female artist within the Gutai group, renowned for her ‘Electric Dress’ (1955). This iconic garment, constructed from incandescent bulbs painted in primary colors, was worn by Tanaka during a Gutai performance. The physical embodiment of the dress, with its tangled wires and illuminated bulbs, evolved into Tanaka’s two-dimensional paintings. These works, seemingly playful, explored the circles and circuits through which she was ‘sensing eternity’.
‘A Visual Essay on Gutai’ at Hauser & Wirth 69th Street also presented two pieces from Jiro Yoshihara’s celebrated ‘circle’ series, comprising approximately 25 paintings and considered among the most important contributions to the Gutai movement. ‘Work’ from 1967, featured in the exhibition, is a key example from this series, which was influenced by the Zen artist-monk Nantembo Toju (1839 – 1926), known for his calligraphy and ink painting. In Zen tradition, the circle embodies void and substance, emptiness and completeness, and the unity of painting, calligraphy, and meditation – themes resonant in Yoshihara’s work and thoughtfully displayed at 69th Street.
During a period when many Japanese artists had embraced Western approaches to art creation and criticism, Gutai’s concepts and artworks frequently provoked the question, ‘Is this art?’. Gutai’s distinctiveness lay in its unpredictability; the movement’s trajectory and the forms its work would take were often unknown, even to its members. Gutai’s commitment to continuous surprise propelled its artists in unforeseen directions, leading Yoshihara to question, ‘whether or not the production process was stamped with the instant of creation as proof of the fierce desire to affirm a vivid sense of adventure and a free spirit’. This adventurous spirit was vibrantly on display at Hauser & Wirth’s 69th Street location, celebrating the enduring legacy of Gutai art.
