Ministério do Turismo, Museu , Vonder and Atelier Yutaka Toyota present

YUTAKA TOYOTA THE RHYTHM OF SPACE YUTAKA TOYOTA Reflections

The Oscar Niemeyer Museum pre- sents the exhibition Yutaka Toyota: O Ritmo do Espaço (Yutaka Toyota: The Rhythm of Space), which brings together some of the most important productions of this artist who will celebrate his 90th birthday in 2021. The recipient of a vast number of awards, a sculptor, painter, draft- sman, engraver and scenographer, Toyota has already declared that he is more Brazilian than Japanese after spending a greater part of his life in than in Japan. He also emphasizes that: “I always continue to keep the Japanese spirit”. Besides his spirit, he has also brought from Japan the foundations of his educa- tion at the University of Tokyo, which has enhanced with his experience in our country and in Italy. Absorbing and processing the dif- ferences and similarities of the Western and Eastern cultures, in his production Toyota offers points and counterpoints that instigate us to reflect upon the unit, duality and complementarity, while we con- template the beauty of his works, in which we find ours reflections inserted in his universe. Regarding Toyota´s works, Niemeyer wrote: “I see them, at times, on a larger scale, like big metallic signs full of brilliance and light and feel that they are so beautiful that I would like to include them in our ”. Now the wish of the creator of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum will be fulfilled. We invite you to plunge into this uni- verse and to perceive that the works gain new forms with your move- ments and, as in the words of Mario Schenberg, your “observation is modi- fied by the very act of observing”. Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika Chief Executive Officer Oscar Niemeyer Museum Fourth Dimension Space, 2009 (detail) Stainless steel, aluminum and acrylic paint on wood YUTAKA TOYOTA O ritmo do espaço

Yutaka Toyota belongs to the group of artists who, in the decade of 1960, decreed the end of easel painting and figurative sculpture, inviting the public to participate in new aes- thetic, interactive and sensorial. The artist uses the multiple possi- bilities of reflections to, in his own words: “understand the meaning of Space”. According to him, while the West views the answer through quantum physics, the East sees something spiritually superior – but both are studying that which inte- rests him: the connection between Man and the Universe. Toyota´s reflections polished sur- faces capture the spectator instiga- ting new realities and inviting dua- lities: virtual curvatures, ascending inversions, descending flexions.... In these, the visible becomes invisible, levity counteracts volume, the unit is replicated in plurality, and positive is also negative: Yin and Yang (In and Yo in Japanese). Some of his works offer the viewer another experience to the spectator by being suddenly and unexpectedly infused with color. Camouflaged, it slowly reveals its subtle and vibrating presence. As from the decade of 1980, Toyota moved to the environmental space, becoming one of the few Brazilian artists to command the relationship between sculpture, space and scale, disseminating over one hundred public works between Brazil and Japan. Classified as a member of the Op-Art, Toyota goes beyond this label, and we can observe the simi- larity between his work and that of Anish Kapoor, a contemporary artist who, not by chance, is also an Occidental-Oriental. Yutaka Toyota – The Rhythm of Space is a retrospective that, though with no rigid chronological struc- ture, allows us to accompany the trajectory and process of this artist, who at 89, continues to possess full creative vigor, while his trailblazing spirit is recognized by contemporary critics. This exhibition was held at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, the Museum of Brazilian Art of FAAP, in São Paulo, and the National Museum of the Republic, in Brasilia, and was awarded as the best retrospective exhibition of the year by the APCA – Paulista Association of Art Critics.

Denise Mattar Curator Contrast Space, 2016 Stainless steel and acrylic paint on wood Negative Space, 1971 Stainless steel, aluminum, acrylic paint and laminate on wood Harmony Space, 2019 Stainless steel, paint, laminate and wood Untitled Stainless steel on wood Reflexion Space, 2014 (detail) Stainless steel, acrylic paint and laminate on wood Yutaka Toyota ROOM 4 The Rhythm of Space TO 17 FEB 2021

Cover (detail): Yutaka Toyota | In and Yo nº 1 Space, 2009 Stainless steel and aluminum on wood

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