Kusama 2 1 Zero Gutai Kusama

Home , Dutch Nul group, Enrico Castellani, Heinz Mack, Lothar Wolleh, Saburo Murakami, Zero (art)

ZERO GUTAI KUSAMA 2 1 ZERO GUTAI KUSAMA

VIEWING Bonhams 101 New Bond Street London, W1S 1SR

Sunday 11 October 11.00 - 17.00 Monday 12 October 9.00 - 18.00 Tuesday 13 October 9.00 - 18.00 Wednesday 14 October 9.00 - 18.00 Thursday 15 October 9.00 - 18.00 Friday 16 October 9.00 - 18.00 Monday 19 October 9.00 - 17.00 Tuesday 20 October 9.00 - 17.00

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE £25.00

ENQUIRIES Ralph Taylor +44 (0) 20 7447 7403 [email protected]

Giacomo Balsamo +44 (0) 20 7468 5837 [email protected]

PRESS ENQUIRIES +44 (0) 20 7468 5871 [email protected]

2 1 INTRODUCTION The history of art in the 20th Century is punctuated by moments of pure inspiration, moments where the traditions of artistic practice shifted on their foundations for ever. The 1960s were rife with such moments and as such it is with pleasure that we are able to showcase the collision of three such bodies of energy in one setting for the first time since their inception anywhere in the world with ‘ZERO Gutai Kusama’.

The ZERO and Gutai Groups have undergone a radical reappraisal over the past six years largely as a result of recent exhibitions at the New York Guggenheim Museum, Berlin Martin Gropius Bau and Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum amongst others. This escalation of interest is entirely understandable coming at a time where experts and collectors alike look to the influences behind the rapacious creativity we are seeing in the Contemporary Art World right now and in light of a consistently strong appetite for seminal works.

Yayoi Kusama bestrides the Japanese Art World like a Colossus and her influence is felt in all manner of forms of artistic practice. Her impact opened doors particularly for female artists around the world and yet the fearlessness and vigour that she has become synonymous with all began in the 1960s and particularly with her debut European show in 1965 at International Gallery Orez in The Hague which included three works that feature in this exhibition.

INTRODUCTION This private collection has not been seen in public since the 1960s and represents the passion of a collector who anticipated the zeitgeist through a total commitment to acquiring the best works from ZERO, Gutai, Nul and Yayoi Kusama at a time when they were blazing a trail in 1960s Holland. This selection is marked by the inclusion of some bona fide masterpieces: Kazuo Shiraga’s imposing fan, a very rare example of early Gutai sculpture; a suite of four early and delicate works by Jan Schoonhoven that charter the artist’s journey through Minimalism; three works from Yayoi Kusama’s first solo European show in 1965, which now serve as archetypes of her practice; and a sensational Günther Uecker from 1967, with all the dynamism and energy you would expect from such a piece.

To have the opportunity to host a museum quality collection at Bonhams is a rare and wonderful privilege. This is exactly where Bonhams is at its best; demonstrating connoisseurship and using the profile of an auction house to rediscover forgotten masterpieces and to champion the very best in Post-War & Contemporary art through all the definitions of quality beyond simply value. Bonhams has been at the forefront of the drive to present these artists at the centre of the cultural and commercial conversation over recent years and through this exhibition we renew our commitment to these efforts.

Ralph Taylor Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe ZERO AND NUL

ZERO: Let Us Explore the Stars is the title of the current Piene concentrated on a severe formal and expressive exhibition in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. It derives reduction of artistic means in monochrome paintings (or from John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural speech: ‘Together three-dimensional monochrome works such as the white let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, (...), tap the nail piece by Günther Uecker in this exhibition) that were ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.’ The a reaction to the fashionable Abstract Expressionism self-confident optimism that emanated from this speech movement of the 1950s. In 1961, the ZERO-artists grandly sounds truly enviable, in 2015. declared the four elements, the world oceans, the Sahara desert, even the universe to be the material of their art. Around 1961 this credo had long been embraced by the German ZERO group, consisting, by this time, of Heinz By this time, artists such as Adolf Luther, Christian Megert Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker. The movement and many others had adopted the ZERO credo. Adolf had come into being during evening exhibitions in the Luther’s concave mirror object from 1970 that is in the Düsseldorf studios of Mack and Piene, in 1958. During current exhibition, perfectly conveys the focus of the later the first phase of their artistic development, and under ZERO artists through the combination of art and technology the influence of Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana, Mack and with the viewer finding himself the subject of this work.

Heinz Mack, Diagram, 1970

4 5 Jan Schoonhoven in International Gallery Orez (circa 1965)

During the sixties various ZERO related movements came from 1963 until 1970, included in this exhibition. The artist into being all over Europe. This concerned for instance became famous for the use of monochrome white which he Gruppo T and Azimuth in Italy, Nouveau Réalisme in France applied on exquisite handmade papier-mâché reliefs with and the Dutch Nul Group. The latter featured artists like Jan different motifs, creating works of a timeless beauty. Henk Schoonhoven and Henk Peeters, who are represented in this Peeters also made serial works, like the early example in Bonhams exhibition. In connection with the first phase of cotton wool from 1962-1964 which is also exhibited, as ZERO, Nul concentrated on isolating pieces of reality, often well as experimenting with other materials and techniques in serial form. Schoonhoven was the movement’s purist, such as smoke, water and fire. and this is evident from looking at the four rare examples

4 5 THE GUTAI GROUP

Gutai was founded in 1954 by the charismatic Jirō Yoshihara and was active until 1972, the year of Yoshihara’s death. The name Gutai can be interpreted to mean ‘concrete’ and stood for the desire to produce art that would relate to the post-war Japanese world in a concrete fashion. Here we must remember that during the Second World War, Japanese artists were forced by their government to put their art in the service of the national war machine. Those who did not, were considered decadent and risked imprisonment. The aim of this collective was to create ‘something that has never existed before’ as per Jirō Yoshihara’s exhortation.

The first generation of Gutai artists including Kazuo Shiraga, Shozo Shimamoto, and Saburo Murakami experimented with performance art well before this happened in the West. Between 1955 and 1958 Yoshihara organized four exhibitions in space (open air), and two in time (on stage). The use of the human body as a brush, the elements, weather, smoke, and spontaneous actions of spectators - all were welcome in this new approach of the visual arts. Kazuo Shiraga’s giant Red Fan is one of the few sculptures that this first-generation of Gutai artists produced. An unequivocal masterpiece, the rhythmic folding of the screen coupled with the intense scarlet lacquer makes this a truly mesmerising work to engage with in the flesh. It is a playful, yet powerful comment on an object that has so much history in Japanese culture and art.

7 7 Above: The Gutai Collective with Michel Tapié, 1965 Right: Original instruction label from Minoru Onoda’s Work 66-14

8 9 The early years were devoted to exploring the boundaries Sadahoru Horio, Minoru Onoda and Satoshi Tai show the of the traditional concepts of art in general, but gradually Gutai group’s more poetic side. Horio’s technicoloured the members began to focus more on new developments protrusions in contrast to the stark monochrome canvas in the post-war world such as the visualisation of energy, or draw the traditions of painting into a new realm echoing the the use of industrially produced materials such as plastic, shaped canvases of his Italian counterparts Castellani and foil, reflective metal and Perspex. This was partly due to the Bonalumi. Onoda’s eye wateringly complex dot marking on rapid industrialisation of Japan in the 1960s. The content the gentle rippling of the shaped wood surface articulate of these works coincided with the latest developments in notions of infinity. Tai’s pulsating use of colour executed in the international arts such as Kinetic, Op and Pop art. It household paint explores the possibilities of movement in was the prerogative of the third-generation of Gutai artists. harmony with line and form. As Ming Tiampo has it: ‘Gutai had entered the space age’. The first time ZERO and Gutai art were shown together In this exhibition the works by Kumiko Imanaka, Jōji was at the 1965 Stedelijk Museum’s Nul exhibition – Bien Kikunami and Minoru Yoshida testify to that effect, and étonnés de se trouver ensemble. In 2006, this Nul 1965 all three eschew the traditions of two-dimensional picture show was reconstructed in the ZERO exhibition at Museum making. Imanaka’s nuanced and gently undulating strips Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf. This was the beginning of the of machine-finished steel creates an artwork which is revival in both ZERO and Gutai we have witnessed today. static, yet exudes energy and movement. Kikunami’s crisp abstraction references the visual complexity of Op art, with his new age use of reflective plastic to create images of infinite complexity. Yoshida explores the realm of the three- dimensional, the fluorescence of the Perspex in accordance with the mysterious form gives the impression that this is no earthly object, rather one from another world.

8 9 ZERO ON SEA

The second time ZERO and Gutai were to join forces was The resulting list includes Yayoi Kusama and George in the 1966 ZERO on Sea project. Rickey from New York; Hans Haacke, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker from Germany; Jirō Yoshihara In September 1965, International Gallery Orez was to and his Tokyo Gutai colleagues; Pol Bury and Walter curate a brainchild of Henk Peeters and his fellow ZERO Leblanc from Belgium; Arman from France; Lucio Fontana, artists: the ZERO on Sea project, and it was designed to Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo and Nanda Vigo from take place on the Scheveningen pier. Scheveningen is the Italy; Jesús Rafael Soto from Venezuela and the Dutch Nul seaside resort of the Dutch city of The Hague and the pier group. Unfortunately, ZERO on Sea never happened: over is a modernist construction stretching deep into the North the summer of 1965, it became clear just how much the Sea. ZERO on Sea was to be the ultimate celebration of the whole project was going to cost. At first it was delayed, new and revolutionary approach of art of the international until April 1966; then it was cancelled altogether. Instead, 1960s avant garde. On Scheveningen pier, out in the open, Orez staged an exhibition of the designs, and one year later, the elements, art and exhibition space would merge into the Dutch architectural Forum magazine devoted an issue one giant, anonymous Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of to ZERO on Sea. In retrospect, the project is considered art. It was a challenge, worthy of the ZERO credo. the Grand Finale of the ZERO movement.

The owner of the pier, entrepreneur Reindert Zwolsman For the occasion of ZERO on Sea, the Gutai group and his exploitatie Maatschappij Scheveningen was to dispatched a number of works to The Hague that were finance the project. The ZERO and Nul artists approached shown at International Gallery Orez in 1966. Some of these companies that produced the objects they worked with works are now on show here at Bonhams. for sponsorship – a thoroughly modern concept, in 1965. Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon were dispatched on a tour around the world in order to ‘collect’ artists.

10 11 Above: Henk Peeters Zero on Sea (Zero op Zee), 1966 Left: Original label from Sadaharu Horio’s Work 1967 2. No 4

10 11 An installation view of works by Yuko Nasaka, Satoshi Tai (as seen right), Senkichiro Nasaka, Norio Imai and Kazuo Shiraga at Heide Hildebrand Gallery in Klagenfurt, Austria, 1967

12 13 In May 1967 the gallery organized an exhibition in Rotterdam’s Studio Experiment; one month later, the gallery curated a Gutai exhibition at Heide Hildebrand Gallery in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt. A surviving photograph of that exhibition shows the Red Fan by Kazuo Shiraga as well as the painting by Satoshi Tai crafted in hard, shiny colours. According to Tiampo, this was the only exhibition outside Japan that represented the younger generation of Gutai artists. This view should be revised. Younger Gutai artists had already exhibited in Orez one year previously.

Curiously, the Orez September 1966 exhibition goes unnoticed in the growing body of international literature on the Gutai group. But this is about to change: Gutai has now become ‘hot’. Previously, the first and only American Gutai exhibition was held in 1958 at the Martha Jackson Gallery, yet this all changed when in February 2013 the New York Guggenheim Museum presented a large retrospective entitled Gutai: Splendid Playground. Finally Gutai has been recognised as a major player in the history of international 20th century art.

Detail of Satoshi Tai’s Untitled, 1966

12 13 YAYOI KUSAMA

The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama moved to New York in After attending the Amsterdam vernissage, Kusama 1958. One year later, German curator Udo Kultermann saw travelled to The Hague with a portfolio full of 1950’s a review of her 1959 exhibition at the Brata Gallery in that gouaches. Verboon and Vogel put the young Japanese town. He invited her to contribute one of her net paintings artist up in a rented studio with a sewing machine, some to the 1960 Monochrome Malerei exhibition in Leverkussen, paint spray and a number of objects to work on: a shirt, a West Germany; this show became the start of her dazzling pair of discarded trousers, old Coca Cola bottles, a suitcase career in Europe. Around the same time, Kusama began and an odd number of boards to paint on. She covered all corresponding with Henk Peeters, who asked her to the said objects with stuffed cotton protuberances or with contribute to the Nul 62 exhibition he was curating for the machine produced pasta shapes. Next, she sprayed them Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum in 1962. It was Peeters who with white, silver or gold paint. introduced her to the owners of International Gallery Orez. Kusama occupied the entire front room of the gallery, and In early 1965, Orez had great plans for the future. One it contained approximately fifteen of her works. Reviews such plan was the organisation of regular exhibitions on the mention a chair, a hat, a handbag, shoes and bottles theme of ‘Aspects of Contemporary Eroticism’. The first covered with ‘phallic symbols’ and macaroni shirts and one opened on 18th May 1965, just after the start of the shoes, some of which can be spotted in photos by Dutch Nul 1965 Stedelijk Museum show. photographer Marianne Dommisse. Indeed these images are reproduced alongside this text, the first taken at her opening at Orez, with Red Spots, 1965 visible above her right shoulder (opposite page), the second with Kusama holding up her iconic Macaroni Shirt, 1965 next to Albert Vogel (reproduced on page 89).

Detail of Kusama’s Red Spots, 1965 14 15 Kusama at her first European solo show at International Gallery Orez, 1965

In this exhibition at Bonhams, three items from the 1965 She was so shocked that she ran straight to the nearby exhibition are on display: Macaroni Shirt, Red Dots and police headquarters. The police came and determined Phallic Bottle Tray. The works she produced during this that the exhibition would only be accessible to visitors period are considered some of the most cutting edge and over eighteen years of age; they had to ring the bell to rare pieces to come out of her entire artistic output. gain entry. At the front door they were met by the blonde gallery assistant, Lady Elisabeth Melvill-van Carnbee, who The public entered the back room of the gallery by had to inform them what the show was about and ask the stepping through an artwork called the Gate to Heaven. obligatory question: ‘do you consider erotic art dirty?’ Only This consisted of a giant, bright red trouser ‘fly’ – a cloth those who answered with an unequivocal ‘no’ were allowed with a zip that could be opened or closed – by Michel in. This May 1965 exhibition of at International Gallery Orez Cardena. There, the other art works were on display. The has gone down in art history as Kusama’s ‘first European show ran into trouble straight away: a woman who had solo show’. an appointment for her young daughter with one of the dentists on the first floor of the house, wandered into the exhibition and ‘got lost between various obvious aspects of contemporary eroticism’, as the Amsterdam daily Het Parool reported.

14 15 16 17 ZERO/NUL

16 17 HENK PEETERS 18 19 18 19 HENK PEETERS

Untitled 1962-1964 cotton wool and fabric

27.1 by 27.1 cm. 10 11/16 by 10 11/16 in. 21 21 JAN SCHOONHOVEN 22 23 22 23 JAN SCHOONHOVEN

Untitled 1963 painted papier-mâché on wood

27.9 by 22.7 by 3.5 cm. 11 by 8 15/16 by 1 3/8 in. 24 25 24 25 JAN SCHOONHOVEN

R69-7 1969 painted papier-mâché on wood

50 by 50 by 4 cm. 19 11/16 by 19 11/16 by 1 9/16 in. 26 27 26 27 JAN SCHOONHOVEN

R70-45 1970 painted papier-mâché on wood

51 by 51 by 4 cm. 20 1/16 by 20 1/16 by 1 9/16 in. 28 29 28 29 JAN SCHOONHOVEN

Peinture Zero 2 1968 ink and emulsion on plywood

60 by 40 cm. 23 5/8 by 15 3/4 in. 30 31 30 31 GÜNTHER UECKER 32 33 32 33 GÜNTHER UECKER

Untitled 1967 oil, kaolin and nails on canvas laid on board

85.6 by 85.6 by 9 cm. 33 11/16 by 33 11/16 by 3 9/16 in. 34 35 34 35 ADOLF LUTHER 36 37 36 37 ADOLF LUTHER

Untitled 1970 mirrors, glass and Perspex on board, in a Perspex box

79 by 79 by 7.6 cm. 31 1/8 by 31 1/8 by 3 in. 38 39 38 39 40 GUTAI

40 KAZUO SHIRAGA 42 43 42 43 KAZUO SHIRAGA

Untitled (Red Fan) 1964 lacquer on paper and wood

151 by 304.5 by 50.5 cm. 59 7/16 by 119 7/8 by 19 7/8 in. 44 45 44 45 TOSHIO YOSHIDA 46 47 46 47 TOSHIO YOSHIDA

Untitled 1967 oil and acrylic on canvas

116.5 by 91 cm. 45 7/8 by 35 13/16 in. 48 49 48 49 SATOSHI TAI 50 51 50 51 SATOSHI TAI

Untitled 1966 household paint and mixed media on linen laid on board

60.5 by 72.3 cm. 23 13/16 by 28 7/16 in. 52 53 52 53 SADAHARU HORIO 54 55 54 55 SADAHARU HORIO

Work 1967 2. No 4 1967 household paint on shaped canvas

70 by 66 by 14.5 cm. 27 9/16 by 26 by 5 11/16 in. 56 57 56 57 MINORU ONODA 58 59 58 59 MINORU ONODA

Work 66-14 1966 oil, acrylic and enamel on wood

91.3 by 91.3 by 5 cm. 35 15/16 by 35 15/16 by 2 in. 60 61 60 61 KUMIKO IMANAKA 62 63 62 63 KUMIKO IMANAKA

Untitled 1967 acrylic and metal on styrofoam laid on board, in a Perspex box

90.3 by 89.8 by 3.7 cm. 35 9/16 by 35 3/8 by 1 7/16 in. 64 65 64 65 JŌJI KIKUNAMI 66 67 66 67 JŌJI KIKUNAMI

Work 1-2-67 1967 acrylic, plastic, nylon and Tetron film on board, in a wooden box

101.7 by 101.7 by 12.6 cm. 40 1/16 by 40 1/16 by 4 15/16 in. 68 69 68 69 JŌJI KIKUNAMI

Work 2-2-67 1967 acrylic, plastic and Tetron film on board, in a wooden box

101.7 by 101.7 by 13 cm. 40 1/16 by 40 1/16 by 5 1/8 in. 70 71 70 71 MINORU YOSHIDA 72 73 72 73 MINORU YOSHIDA

Untitled (Bisexual Flower) 1966

Perspex

32 by 42 by 15 cm. 12 5/8 by 16 9/16 by 5 7/8 in. 74 75 74 75 KUSAMA

76 KUSAMA

76 YAYOI KUSAMA 78 79 78 79 YAYOI KUSAMA

Untitled 1967 gelatin silver print

24 by 31.2 cm. 9 7/16 by 12 5/16 in. 80 81 80 81 YAYOI KUSAMA

Red Spots 1965 stuffed printed cloth on board, in a Perspex box

51.3 by 46.2 by 15.2 cm. 20 3/16 by 18 3/16 by 6 in. 82 83 82 83 YAYOI KUSAMA

Phallic Bottle Tray 1965 acrylic, stuffed cloth, glass and metal

30 by 35 by 34 cm. 11 13/16 by 13 3/4 by 13 3/8 in. 84 85 84 85 YAYOI KUSAMA

Macaroni Shirt 1965 acrylic and pasta on textile, on metal hanger

85 by 155.5 by 5 cm. 33 7/16 by 61 1/4 by 1 15/16 in. 86 87 86 87

Kusama holding up Macaroni Shirt and Albert Vogel at International Gallery Orez (1970) BIOGRAPHIES BIOGRAPHIES Born in 1925 in The Hague, Henk Peeters remained in Peeters’ own work often included ready-made elements, his home town to study Fine Art at the city’s Koninklijke and tended towards a clean, almost sparse modernism: Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten. Although he spent “With my work, I have always wanted it to look just as fresh many years working as an art teacher and academic, he is as if it was in the [Dutch chain store] HEMA. It must not be now best remembered for his avant-garde artistic creations artified... I have no need for artistic cotton wool” (quoted and for his involvement in two of twentieth-century Europe’s on arndtberlin.com). His regular use of monochrome most important art groups, namely Nul and ZERO. His first white also closely allied him not just with fellow Dutchman collaboration with fellow Dutch artists emerged in Arnhem Schoonhoven, but also the famous Achrome of Manzoni in 1958, when he joined forces with Armando, Kees van in Italy. Peeters’ Pyrographies harnessed the destructive Bohemen, Jan Henderikse, Jan Schoonhoven and others power of fire to burn and puncture plastic, while other to form the short-lived Hollandse Informele Groep (Dutch works left canvases covered in the dark residues of smoke. Informal Group). In 1961 Peeters became one of the One of the artist’s largest-scale initiatives was unrealised founder members of Nul, which has been regarded as ZERO on Sea project. After ZERO disbanded in the late standing in opposition to the more painterly approach of 1960s, Peeters dedicated himself to teaching, taking up the artists in that other well-known collaboration of the an academic role at the Art Academy in Anherm, where he time, CoBrA. Given their similar attitudes towards the continued his pioneering research into avant-garde art. In creation of art, it is hardly surprising that Nul soon became later life he lived and worked in Hall, where he died in 2013. closely involved with the ZERO group, and Peeters spent much time travelling around Europe meeting like-minded artists including Yves Klein in France, Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni in Italy, and Günther Uecker in Germany. Close bonds were formed, and despite a degree of public incomprehension, Peeters and his new comrades forged ahead with their artistic revolution.

92 93 A native of Delft in the Netherlands, Jan Schoonhoven Working in series, Schoonhoven dedicated himself to enrolled at the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende creating monochrome wall reliefs which dispensed with Kunsten in The Hague in 1932 at eighteen years of age. any sense of subjectivity and played instead with the ever- Like his Japanese contemporaries Toshio Yoshida and changing relationships between light and shadow, and Sadaharu Horio, Schoonhoven later managed to hold down form and space. The crucial importance of his drawings in a full time job (in his case as a civil servant employed by pen and ink, as well as his prints, in the development of this the Dutch Postal Service) while gradually developing his art unique style is now widely recognised. The artist continued work, carving a career which has led to him being described to live and work in Delft until his death in 1994. During his as one of the most important Dutch artists of the twentieth lifetime his work was celebrated in high-profile museum century. Early works on paper demonstrated the influences shows at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in The Hague in of Paul Klee, but by the 1950s he had begun to create 1964 and Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in vibrant abstract works which were reminiscent of Tachism. 1968, 1972 and 1973, as well as in major retrospectives Schoonhoven was to become involved in a number of across Europe. His work is also held in the permanent important artistic groups, most notably the Nederlandse collections of some of the world’s most illustrious art Informele Groep (Netherlandish Informal Group) between institutions, including the Tate Gallery, London, MoMA, 1957 and 1960, and the Nul-groep (Nul Group) from 1961 New York and the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf. to 1965. It was the latter that led to his collaborations Schoonhoven’s vital role in the development of the ZERO with the ZERO group, whose small beginnings in Germany group was recognised with the inclusion of his work in the expanded rapidly into an international movement of like- recent exhibition ZERO: COUNTDOWN TO TOMORROW, minded artists. It was also around 1960 that Schoonhoven 1950s-60s at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. began to make the distinctive white geometric reliefs for which he is now best known.

92 93 Günther Uecker was born in 1930 in Wendorf, Germany. He also began to employ more unconventional supports Aged nineteen he enrolled to study painting at the for his works, hammering nails into chairs, pianos and Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee, remaining there televisions. The beginnings of his experimentations for four years before continuing his education at the with kinetics, creating art objects which still featured his Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Throughout his twenties signature nails, but now propelled into motion by engines, Uecker was drawn towards esoteric religious philosophies, coincided with the founding of ZERO, and he continued to particularly those which espoused ideas of purity and develop this form throughout the 1960s. After the break-up simplicity. His studies of these teachings led him to Taoism, of ZERO, Uecker began to move into large-scale conceptual Buddhism and Islam, and he also became fascinated by the projects, often monumental works of art in the open complex rituals of religious purification, apparently intrigued landscape, and his later career has even encompassed by the almost mesmeric qualities of their repetitiveness. film and opera set designs. His work was featured in high- His own version of these repetitious rituals, which involved profile exhibitions such as Documenta 4, Kassel in 1968 Uecker spending hours hammering nails, eventually led and the 1970 Venice Biennale, and retrospectives and solo him to involve nails, and later corks and cardboard tubes, shows at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich into his art. The resulting works, wall-hanging reliefs which in 1990 and 2010 have continued to raise his profile. His blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, art is also held in the collections of many of the world’s were to become the artist’s trademark. In 1958 Uecker most prestigious galleries and museums, including the took part in an exhibition, entitled Das rote Bild (The Red Tate Gallery, London, MoMA and the Guggenheim in New Picture), organised by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, which York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Uecker lives and was held in the two artist’s studio space at the back of a continues to work in Düsseldorf. disused factory in Düsseldorf. Two years later he joined Mack and Piene’s recently formed ZERO group, becoming part of its small but vital core of German artists, all three collaborating on a regular basis. Meanwhile, his distinctive style had also evolved further, his regular geometric compositions based on strict mathematical sequences giving way to more organic forms.

94 95 Adolf Luther (1912-1990) is today acclaimed for the Luther’s works ranged in scale from the intimate to the innovative use of light in his art, as well as his influential monumental, often reflecting back the environment that experimentation with kinetics. His early training was they inhabit (and indeed those viewing them) in startling actually in the law, for which he enrolled at the University and unexpected ways. Closely allied with the ZERO of Bonn in 1938, but by the early 1940s it was becoming group, he exhibited his work alongside its other members clear that art was to become a defining factor in his life. at various exhibitions in Berlin, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen Although he combined the two for many years, Luther and Philadelphia, and also held successful solo shows finally gave up his role as a magistrate in 1957, and focused at prominent institutions including the Palais des Beaux solely on his artistic output. While his earlier work relied on Arts, Brussels and Switzerland’s Kunsthalle Basel (both traditional techniques such as oil on canvas, Luther’s use 1971) and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in Germany (1974). of uncompromising abstraction in his paintings hinted at Much lauded during his lifetime, Adolf Luther founded what was to come. His harnessing of the visual effects of his own Adolf-Luther-Stiftung (Adolf Luther Foundation) light and shadow first emerged in 1958, and was soon in Krefeld, Germany in 1989, the year before his death. to become his signature style. Using mirrors, refraction As well as holding an important collection of works by the lenses and even laser beams in works that he himself, ZERO group, the Nouveaux Réalistes and other similarly referred to as konkreten Kunst (Concrete Art), Luther radical twentieth-century artists, the Foundation continues created art which was ethereal, ever-changing and, with its to promote the artist’s life and work on an international unmistakable silvery metallic sheen, unavoidably futuristic. platform, and also encourages research into the conceptual In doing so, he eliminated the need for subject matter foundations of ‘Concrete Art’ . and perspective, relying instead on the visual sensations created by light and its movement on the viewer. The introduction of smoke to one of his most celebrated works, Laser Space of 1970, in which laser beams were rendered visible by constantly shifting vapour, added a new layer to his sculptural installations.

94 95 KAZUO SHIRAGA

Born in Amagasaki in 1924, Kazuo Shiraga was a founder This technique of painting with feet, employing both the member of Gutai, and was responsible for some of its artist’s body and no small amount of unpredictability, most notable (and controversial) creations. Although he was to create headlines and become the moment for had trained in classical Japanese painting in Kyoto during which Shiraga (if not the whole Gutai movement) is best his youth, studying a traditional technique known as remembered. Influential French art critic Michel Tapié was Nihonga, Shiraga quickly became frustrated by its strict impressed with the powerful results, obtaining works for rules, and began to experiment with oil paint and the his own collection. It was largely thanks to his interest that unconventional use of his hands and fingers. Shiraga’s word was spread to Europe of Shiraga, Gutai and the art new and uncompromising approach to art was to become they were producing, opening a whole new market for the evident at Gutai’s first exhibition, held at the Ohara Kaikan artist and his oeuvre. Shiraga was also a regular contributor Hall in Tokyo in October 1955. Here the artist wrestled in a to the Gutai journal, in which he expressed his belief in huge expanse of mud (made in fact from plaster, gravel and the importance of ethics in art. In 1965 he was invited to cement), combining performance and painting to create a participate in an exhibition dedicated the Dutch art group revolutionary work entitled Challenging Mud. Shiraga’s use Nul, held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Shiraga’s of the body in the production of a work of art preceded output evolved in the late 1960s, with foot paintings being Yves Klein’s similarly created Anthropometries by several dropped in favour of the iconic ‘fan’ works. In 1971 the years; this is surely no coincidence, given the fact that artist’s life changed radically, when he enrolled as a monk Klein visited Japan around this time. It was, however, in in the Tendai sect Buddhist temple Enryakuji on Mount Hiei. May 1957 that Shiraga devised a work which was to define Taking the new name Sodo (Simple Path), he continued to his later career. In an appearance at Gutai’s Art Using the paint until his death in 2008. Stage exhibition in Osaka, he suspended himself from the gallery ceiling on a rope, and proceeded to drag and kick oil paint across a sheet of paper on the gallery floor.

96 97 TOSHIO YOSHIDA

Born in Kobe in 1928, Yoshida was one of the founders of While Yoshida successfully explored the potential of the Gutai group when it first began in 1954, and remained unconventional materials including polyurethane foam one of its most important members until its dissolution in and burning coals and wood, he also created a number of 1972. For much of that time he functioned as the manager stunning works using more traditional techniques such as and publicist for the movement, while still working full- oil on canvas, often working with monumental brushstrokes time as an accountant in a mill owned by the father of and thick impasto. Gesture was an important factor in fellow Gutai artist Jirō Yoshihara. Perhaps one of the most his output, with his great sweeps of paint representing a theatrical and playful members of the group, his work is as tangible record of the artist’s methods, while simultaneously varied as it is experimental, and often includes elements making oblique references to the calligraphic tradition. of performance. In its challenge to traditional methods of He also produced a series of works in journal format for artistic practice, specifically in relation to its semi-automatic inclusion in the influential Gutai journal, which he viewed and automatic methods of production, Yoshida’s work has as multiples in their own right. His work was extensively been recently described as “the epitome of the stated exhibited during his lifetime, and has also been featured in Gutai relationship between artist and material” (Gutai: a number of prestigious shows since his death in 1997; his Decentering Modernism, Ming Tiampo, 2011, p. 68). The solo exhibition at the Gutai Pinacotheca in Osaka in 1962 artist is particularly remembered for his contribution to was followed by his participation in several important group the 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition, which took place in Tokyo in shows dedicated to the Japanese avant-garde, including 1956, and saw the artist pouring colourful pigments onto a Fluorescent Chrysanthemum at the ICA in London in 1962, canvas from a watering can while perched on a ladder. His Scream Against the Sky at the Yokohama Museum of Art, 1965 installation entitled Foam A is also seen as pivotal to the Guggenheim Soho, New York and the San Francisco the movement’s evolution, its apparently chaotic creation Museum of Modern Art, 1994-1995, and Gutai at the of spewing white foam an experiment in automatism. Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, 1999.

96 97 SATOSHI TAI

Satoshi Tai, born in 1939, joined Gutai in 1965, and was to Tai’s work in particular was singled out for praise at the remain a member for four years. His talent was recognised time by influential art critic Kazuo Akane. 1967 was an as early as June 1965 when he was awarded the Association eventful year for the artist: in January he was included in of Fine Art Prize following the inclusion of his work in the a group show at the Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka, and in organisation’s exhibition in Ashiya. That same year he took April he was honoured with a ten-day solo show at the part in the 15th Gutai Art Exhibition at the Gutai Pinacotheca Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka where he exhibited a number in Osaka along with a number of the new members of the of his distinctive large-scale canvases featuring swirls of group, which included Minoru Yoshida, Kumiko Imanaka intense colour. As one of the most exciting members of and Norio Imai. The works he exhibited at this pivotal show the younger generation of Gutai artists, Tai took part in an signalled his focus on optical experimentation, and have important European exhibition held at the Galerie Heide been described as encouraging a personal engagement Hildebrand in Klagenfurt, Austria in June 1967. This show between viewer and work of art. The show was a critical also demonstrated the developing relationship between success, hailed for its audacious innovation and its break the Japanese artists and the Nul group. Hung in a vast, from the artistic mould, and has been recently credited with shadowy space alongside monumental pieces by Yūko reinvigorating the group as a whole. Nasaka and Kazuo Shiraga, Tai’s vibrant work (part of this exhibition) featured his signature elegant forms created in vividly-coloured geometrical stripes. The artist died in 1971, aged only 32.

98 99 SADAHARU HORIO

Sadaharu Horio was born in 1939 and like his fellow The incredible visual impact of one of these sculptures, Gutai member Toshio Yoshida, he managed to combine entitled Work, has recently been described by Ming a successful art career with a full time job, in his case at Tiampo: “it seemed to leap off the walls in an effort to the Kobe shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, where he dance with the sound installation” (Gutai, 2011, p.162). worked from graduation until he retired at the age of 60. It Since the demise of Gutai, Horio has continued to create was at his workplace that he joined the yōga club, studying experimental art, and has been involved in local Japanese Western art techniques such as oil on canvas. Although art collectives such as Bonkura! and KUKI. He has also Horio took part in the celebrated 15th Gutai Art exhibition become well-known for his performance pieces, which in 1965, he did not officially join the group until the following regularly include the participation of children. His more year, and he remained a member until the group dispersed six recent work often involves the appropriation of everyday years later. He was heavily influenced by Gutai artist Saburo materials in the artistic process. The importance of his long Murakami, who acted as his mentor, with Horio particularly career has been recognised in a 2002 solo retrospective at drawn to Murakami’s more avant-garde conceptual ideas. the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, while European His work created during his time with Gutai is particularly audiences were able to see his work exhibited in the 2009 noted for its interest in manipulating the edges and surfaces Venice Biennale and in a solo show at Antwerp’s Axel of painting. In 1968 he was granted a solo show at the Vervoordt Gallery in 2011. Today the artist continues to live Gutai Pinacotheca in Osaka. Like many of his colleagues, and work in his home town of Kobe alongside his wife, the Horio played an important role in the high-profile Expo artist Akiko Horio. ’70, a 330 acre world’s fair with the theme ‘Progress and Harmony for Mankind’. He was involved in the production of a film for the fair’s Astrorama Dome, and also contributed a number of large-scale fabric sculptures that responded to the environment and created dramatic relationships with a central installation by Senkichiro Nasaka.

98 99 MINORU ONODA

Joining in 1965, Minoru Onoda is viewed as one of the In 1966 he showed at the Aspects of New Tendencies most influential of the younger ‘second generation’ of exhibition at the International Gallery Orez. Onoda’s profile Gutai artists who brought a new sense of innovation to in Europe was further raised when his work was included the movement in the mid 1960s. Onoda was born in in a group show at the Galerie Heide Hildebrand in Austria Japanese-occupied Manchuria in 1937, joined the Osaka the following year. In 1970 he played a major role in the Municipal Institute of Art aged nineteen and also became seminal Expo ’70 in Osaka, an event which is credited involved in the artist collective known as Niki-kai. As well with finally establishing the Gutai group as an important as attracting attention for his art, the young Onoda was international art movement. Here, his optically-inspired to gain a reputation as an erudite and insightful critic and dot paintings took centre stage, but Onoda’s contribution writer with challenging ideas regarding the production of also included a number of (ultimately unrealised) plans art. In 1961 he created a manifesto entitled “On Breeding for large-scale interactive ‘environments’ which are now Painting” in which he expounded his theories on how recognised as some of his most ground-breaking creations. art could and should be created. He also described his Comprising various radical concepts such as a structure obsession with the idea of “mechanical multiplication”, a topped by a dome of constantly moving colour planes, a concept which was apparently inspired by his encounter wall of brightly-coloured rotating discs and an escalator with contemporary Japanese news reel films showing that ascended through two rotating rooms, these projects factories churning out countless identical products. involved radical uses of art, architecture and technology. Onoda gained international recognition as early as 1964 when his work was included in the 3rd International Exhibition for Young Artists in Paris, and that same year he was invited by established Gutai member Sadamasa Motonaga to take part in the 16th Gutai Art Exhibition at the Takashimaya Department Store in Osaka. His striking paintings from the 1960s often involved the use of carefully constructed systems, and required the careful placing of brightly coloured dots in intricate circular patterns on relief surfaces, with startling and engaging results.

100 101 KUMIKO IMANAKA

Kumiko Imanaka was a prominent member of the ‘second An installation view of the 19th Gutai Art Exhibition of generation’ Gutai, and joined the group in 1965 when she 1967 shows a group of striking relief pieces by Imanaka, was twenty-six years of age. An Osaka native, Imanaka fashioned in bold orange and blue strips, mounted on the was to remain a member of the group until it dissolved wall next to works by Jirō Yoshihara and Minoru Onoda. in 1972. Although women had been involved in the group During that same year she also included work in the Gutai since its inception, Imanaka is recognised as an important Art for the Space Age, a group show which showcased part of this second wave of female artists, who were some of the movement’s most experimental pieces. With generally perceived to be more in tune with international its specific focus on futuristic technology, Imanaka’s tendencies within the art world than their predecessors. Her radiant, sinuous works of art fitted perfectly into the work from this period often consisted of reflective metallic concept of this pivotal exhibition. The artist’s place as one ribbons which were manipulated into undulating shapes. of the major proponents of optical art in ‘Phase Two’ Gutai Having taken part in the 1966 exhibition Aspects of New is now widely recognised. In 1970 her work was featured in Tendencies in The Hague, Imanaka became involved in the 5th Japan Art Festival at the Solomon R. Guggenheim plans for ZERO on Sea.Although insurance problems and Museum in New York. Since then, it has also been included weather restrictions meant that the show was never to take in high-profile Gutai retrospectives at the Ashiya City place, the plans proposed by the artists were exhibited at Museum of Art and History (1992-3) and the National Art International Gallery Orez in 1967, and later published in Centre in Tokyo (2012) into the conceptual foundations of architecture journal Forum; Imanaka’s proposal involved the ‘Concrete Art’. construction of a pinwheel composition.

100 101 JŌJI KIKUNAMI

Jōji Kikunami was a native of Kobe, and was born there Kikunami’s work was perfectly suited to the pioneering in 1923. Like his fellow Gutai artists Sadaharu Horio Gutai Art for the Space Age exhibition which took place and Minoru Yoshida, Kikunami spent much time learning in 1967; he submitted an impressive two metre tall techniques more commonly associated with European art sculpture fitted with carefully angled lights that displayed when he studied under renowned yōga masters Shigeyoshi intricate red patterns, thus effectively harnessing the Hayashi and Ryohei Koiso as a young man. The tragic power of modern technology to create a stunning visual events of the Second World War had a deep impact on display. While still working as an active member of the the artist, who became involved in radical art collective Gutai movement, Kikunami also became involved in Kodo Bijutsu Kyokai during the post-war period. Kikunami Environment Society (Enbairamento no Kai), an ultimately seems to have yearned for the more optimistic approach short-lived group which shared many of Gutai’s aims and to science and technology that preceded this cataclysmic interests. Also including Gutai members Norio Imai and conflict: “Before the flash of the atom bomb over Hiroshima Yutaka Matsuda, Environment Society experimented with cast an extraordinary anxiety and distrust over technology, the relationship between artist, artwork and environment, science and technology ... offered discoveries and organising an important exhibition in 1966 entitled From methods useful for art, inspired courage in the human Space to Environment. Kikunami’s work was introduced spirit, and itself became the dream for a new society, while to European audiences thanks to the 1966 Aspects Of at the same time recognizing, resisting, and confronting New Tendencies show at International Gallery Orez in The the violence brought about by its double-edged quality,” Hague, and Fluorescent Chrysanthemum at the Institute he wrote in a 1969 article in the Gutai journal entitled of Contemporary Art in London in 1968, and was also ‘What Technology Demands’. In his own work Kikunami, featured in the acclaimed Expo ’70 in Osaka. He died in who joined Gutai in 1966 and remained an active member 2008 in the Japanese city of Takarazuka. until 1972, attempted to recapture this pre-war optimism, often creating work with a distinct futuristic aesthetic. By the time he had become a part of Gutai, optical art was the main focus of his practice.

102 103 MINORU YOSHIDA

Minoru Yoshida was born in Osaka in 1935, and as a Yoshida’s Bisexual Flower, created in 1969 and included young man he studied yōga (a Japanese term for western in the internationally acclaimed Expo ’70, has recently style painting) at the Kyoto City University of Arts. He been described as “an iconic work of Gutai ‘Phase Two’s’ regularly showed his work in the annual exhibitions of the innovations in art, technology and environmental art” local Modern Art Association, and his involvement with the (Gutai: Splendid Playgound, Ming Tiampo and Alexandra Gutai group began in 1964, when he took part in the Gutai Munroe, 2013, p.309). Included in the outdoor section Art New-Work exhibition at the Gutai Pinacotheca in his of the exhibition entitled ‘Garden to Garden’, this motor- native city. As one of the second generation of Gutai artists, driven erotic/kinetic sculpture circulated glowing neon Yoshida was often at the cutting-edge of the movement, water through six units which rose and fell like flower and produced many of its most original and innovative petals, effectively embodying Gutai’s growing concern works of art. In 1965 he contributed two freestanding metal with modern technology. Yoshida later moved to the sculptures decorated with repetitive geometric motifs United States, spending time in Los Angeles and also to the successful 15th Gutai Art Exhibition, works which working from New York, where he staged numerous are now seen as heralding a new interest in an industrial performance events. On his return to Japan in 1977, the aesthetic, a development which was to have a profound artist opened his house in Kyoto as a museum. Minoru effect on the group’s subsequent output. Like Minoru Yoshida passed away in Kyoto in 2010. His importance Onoda, he exhibited in the 1966 exhibition Aspects of New in the development of the Gutai group has recently Tendencies and his solo show at the Gutai Pinacotheca been celebrated in important Japanese retrospectives, that same year consolidated his dedication to the use of including 2012’s Gutai: The Spirit of an Era at the National industrial materials, particularly metal. The following year Art Centre, Tokyo. he took part in the Gutai Art for the Space Age show, held in an amusement park in Nishinomiya, which introduced a noticeably futuristic approach.

102 103 104 105 YAYOI KUSAMA

With a career spanning almost seventy years, Yayoi Although never officially affiliated with any artistic group, Kusama is perhaps the best known Japanese artist of the Kusama’s work from the late 1950s onwards was to twentieth century. Indeed even in the twenty-first century share many similarities with that of ZERO, a fact which she remains as productive and creative as ever; at the age she herself notes in her autobiography (Infinity Net: The of 86 (she was born in the city of Matsumoto in March 1929) Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, 2011, p. 23). In fact, she continues to work, with her output now recognised during the early 1960s her work was featured in a number as influential in artistic movements as diverse as Pop art, of exhibitions dedicated to the work of Nul and ZERO, Minimalism and Feminist art. Although plagued with mental including Tentoonstelling Nul at the Stedelijk Museum, health problems throughout her life, Kusama has harnessed Amsterdam in 1962 and Group ZERO, which toured the hallucinations and obsessive thoughts induced by various American institutions in 1964. In 1973 Kusama was her illness to form her unique artistic vision. Like many forced to return to Japan due to ill-health, checking herself other Japanese artists of her generation (including Kazuo into a hospital where she has lived and worked ever since. Shiraga), she began by studying traditional techniques, in Her diverse body of work has included painting, sculpture, her case a style known as Nihonga, but felt too constricted performance, writing, fashion design and film, has been by the rigid formality that it required. Within two years of exhibited at museums and galleries around the world and entering the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts she is also held in the collections of the Tate Gallery, London, was already producing her trademark abstract works, her MoMA in New York, LACMA in Los Angeles and the Centre so-called Infinity Nets featuring polka dots first on large Georges Pompidou in Paris amongst many others. canvases, later on sculptures and all manner of everyday objects. In 1957 she left Japan behind, and moved to the United States, first to Seattle, and later setting in New York. Here she quickly became a part of the established art scene, becoming friends with Georgia O’Keefe and Joseph Cornell, and renting studio space in the same building as Donald Judd and Eva Hesse.

104 105 LIST OF WORKS

HENK PEETERS JAN SCHOONHOVEN JAN SCHOONHOVEN 1925 - 2013 1914 - 1994 1914 - 1994

Untitled Untitled R69-7 1962-1964 1963 1969 stamped twice on the overlap and on the signed and dated 1963 on the reverse signed, titled and dated 1969 on the reverse stretcher, dated 62/64 and numbered 15a painted papier-mâché on wood painted papier-mâché on wood on the overlap cotton wool and fabric 27.9 by 22.7 by 3.5 cm. 50 by 50 by 4 cm. 11 by 8 15/16 by 1 3/8 in. 19 11/16 by 19 11/16 by 1 9/16 in. 27.1 by 27.1 cm. 10 11/16 by 10 11/16 in.

JAN SCHOONHOVEN JAN SCHOONHOVEN GÜNTHER UECKER 1914 - 1994 1914 - 1994 B. 1930

R70-45 Peinture Zero 2 Untitled 1970 1968 1967 signed, titled and dated 1970 on the reverse signed, titled and dated 1968 on the reverse signed and dated 67 on the reverse painted papier-mâché on wood ink and emulsion on plywood oil, kaolin and nails on canvas laid on board

51 by 51 by 4 cm. 60 by 40 cm. 85.6 by 85.6 by 9 cm. 20 1/16 by 20 1/16 by 1 9/16 in. 23 5/8 by 15 3/4 in. 33 11/16 by 33 11/16 by 3 9/16 in.

106 107 ADOLF LUTHER KAZUO SHIRAGA TOSHIO YOSHIDA 1912 - 1990 B. 1924 1928 - 1997

Untitled Untitled (Red Fan) Untitled 1970 1964 1967

signed and dated 70 on the reverse lacquer on paper and wood signed three times in English and Japanese, mirrors, glass and Perspex on board, dated 1967 and inscribed Gutai, OSAKA on in a Perspex box 151 by 304.5 by 50.5 cm. the reverse 59 7/16 by 119 7/8 by 19 7/8 in. oil and acrylic on canvas 79 by 79 by 7.6 cm. 31 1/8 by 31 1/8 by 3 in. 116.5 by 91 cm. 45 7/8 by 35 13/16 in.

SATOSHI TAI SADAHARU HORIO MINORU ONODA 1939 - 1971 B. 1939 1937 - 2007

Untitled Work 1967 2. No 4 Work 66-14 1966 1967 1966

signed and dated 1966 on the reverse signed in English and Japanese, titled in signed, titled and dated 1966 on the reverse Japanese and inscribed GUTAI. GROUP. household paint and mixed media on linen oil, acrylic and enamel on wood 250-2 HAMANAKA-CHO HYOGO-KU laid on board KOBE in English and Japanese on a label 91.3 by 91.3 by 5 cm. affixed to the reverse 60.5 by 72.3 cm. 35 15/16 by 35 15/16 by 2 in. 23 13/16 by 28 7/16 in. household paint on shaped canvas

70 by 66 by 14.5 cm. 27 9/16 by 26 by 5 11/16 in.

106 107 KUMIKO IMANAKA JŌJI KIKUNAMI JŌJI KIKUNAMI B. 1939 1923 - 2008 1923 - 2008

Untitled Work 1-2-67 Work 2-2-67 1967 1967 1967 signed twice in English and Japanese and signed, titled and inscribed 10-51 SAKASE 2 signed, titled and inscribed 10-51 SAKASE 2 dated 1967 on the reverse CHOME TAKARAZUKA CITY JAPAN GUTAI CHOME TAKARAZUKA CITY JAPAN GUTAI acrylic and metal on styrofoam laid on board, BIJUTSU OSAKA on the reverse BIJUTSU OSAKA on the reverse in a Perspex box acrylic, plastic, nylon and Tetron film on board, acrylic, plastic and Tetron film on board, in a in a wooden box wooden box 90.3 by 89.8 by 3.7 cm. 35 9/16 by 35 3/8 by 1 7/16 in. 101.7 by 101.7 by 12.6 cm. 101.7 by 101.7 by 13 cm. 40 1/16 by 40 1/16 by 4 15/16 in. 40 1/16 by 40 1/16 by 5 1/8 in.

MINORU YOSHIDA YAYOI KUSAMA YAYOI KUSAMA 1935 - 2010 B. 1929 B. 1929

Untitled (Bisexual Flower) Untitled Red Spots 1966 1967 1965

Perspex signed, dated 1967 and dedicated; signed signed, titled and dated 1965 on the reverse twice in English and Japanese, dated 1967 stuffed printed cloth on board, in a Perspex box 32 by 42 by 15 cm. and dedicated on the reverse 12 5/8 by 16 9/16 by 5 7/8 in. gelatin silver print 51.3 by 46.2 by 15.2 cm. 20 3/16 by 18 3/16 by 6 in. 24 by 31.2 cm. 9 7/16 by 12 5/16 in.

108 109 YAYOI KUSAMA YAYOI KUSAMA B. 1929 B. 1929

Phallic Bottle Tray Macaroni Shirt 1965 1965

acrylic, stuffed cloth, glass and metal signed, titled and dated 1965 on the reverse acrylic and pasta on textile, on metal hanger 30 by 35 by 34 cm. 11 13/16 by 13 3/4 by 13 3/8 in. 85 by 155.5 by 5 cm. 33 7/16 by 61 1/4 by 1 15/16 in.

108 109 PHOTO CREDITS

PAGE 12 An installation photo of Heide Hildebrand Gallery in Klagenfurt, Austria, 1967 Works by Yuko Nasaka, Satoshi Tai, Senkichiro Nasaka, Norio Imai and Kazuo Shiraga © Ashiya City Museum of Art and History

PAGE 15 Kusama at her first European one woman show in International Gallery Orez, 1965 Photo Marianne Dommisse

PAGE 89 Kusama holding up Macaroni Shirt and Albert Vogel in International Gallery Orez (1970) Photographer unknown

PAGE 92 Henk Peeters Photographer unknown

PAGE 93 Lothar Wolleh, Jan J. Schoonhoven and Lothar Wolleh, Delft, 1969 Photo Lothar Wolleh. © Oliver Wolleh, Berlin © Jan Schoonhoven. DACS 2015

PAGE 101 A portrait photo of Kumiko Imanaka Photographer unknown

PAGE 105 Fred W. McDarrah, Portrait of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama as she poses on the Brooklyn Bridge dressed in polka dots, New York, May 17, 1968 Photo Fred W. McDarrah © Fred W. McDarrah / Getty Images

We are grateful to the above for permission to reproduce copyright material. We have tried to contact everyone concerned. If we have committed unintentional errors, then please do notify us.

For the purposes of this exhibition we have decided to write Japanese artists’ names following the Western style of First Name followed by Surname. In the Biography section we have made Surnames bold to show sensitivity to Japanese traditions.

Special Thanks Catalogue Design Photography Aki Yamada Victor Seaward Alex Braun Harvey Cammell Peter Gadsby Martin Maybank Alan Montgomery Nathan Brown Clive Rowley Masami Yamada Richard Agostini Julian Campbell

110 111 RECENTLY SOLD AT BONHAMS Sold for£339,828 100 bycm. acrylic onshapedcanvas Superficie Bianca,1985 ENRICO CASTELLANI(B.1930) Sold for£74,920 200 by130cm. acrylic andglassonlinen Nihon Television 08,2006 SHOZO SHIMAMOTO(1928-2013)

ADOLF LUTHER (1912-1990) Hohlspiegelobjekt, 1968 mirror, glass, aluminium and acrylic on board 105 by 105 by 10 cm.

Sold for £193,828

WORLD RECORD FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

YUKO NASAKA (B. 1938) Untitled, 1964 acrylic and lacquer spray on canvas 116 by 80.2 cm.

Sold for £58,500 114 115 LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968) Concetto Spaziale (detail), 1952 oil on canvas 59 by 80 cm.

Sold for £804,185

WORLD RECORD FOR A WORK FROM 1952 BY THE ARTIST 114 115 BONHAMS SPECIALISTS London

Ralph Taylor Gareth Williams Giacomo Balsamo Director, UK Board Departmental Director Senior Specialist, Head of Sale

Julia Heinen Martina Batovic Victor Seaward Senior Specialist Specialist Junior Specialist Americas

James Hendy Jeremy Goldsmith Megan Murphy Sarah Nelson COO Director Specialist, Head of Sale Director Americas New York New York San Francisco Asia & Oceania

Dane Jensen Alexis Chompaisal Mark Fraser Magnus Renfrew Specialist Director Chairman Deputy Chairman, Los Angeles Los Angeles Australia Director of Fine Arts, Asia

Meiling Lee Yao Yao Bernadette Rankine Akiko Tsuchida Senior Specialist Specialist Singapore Tokyo Taipei Beijing 118 119 118 119 101 New Bond Street, London, W1S 1SR 120