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During this period, Yoshihara began to sense
danger as the Informel-style abstract expressions that
emphasized the materiality of actions and materials
threatened to reduce Gutai to a stereotype. Thus, along
with the 15th Gutai Art Exhibition, held at the Gutai
Pinacotheca in July 1965, the period was defined by an
effort to revitalize the group by taking a proactive approach
to the new abstract forms that were emerging without
restricting the artists to the production of painting. This
led to a new emphasis on inorganic, systematic abstract
expressions the polar opposite of the Informel-style
hot abstractions and technology art, which made
use of stainless steel, plastic, motors, and special lights.
By accepting a large number of outside artists into the
group, Yoshihara succeeded in revitalizing Gutai, but at
the same time, this caused the organization to become
bloated and created a hierarchy between the members,
a greater rigidity in interpersonal relationships, and a
weakening of the emotional bonds between Yoshihara
and the rest of the group.
Following the spectacular performances at the
Gutai Art Festival held at the Japan World Exposition in
Osaka in 1970, which in effect functioned as a finale, the
group disbanded at the end of March 1972 in the wake of
Yoshiharas sudden death the previous month.
2. Perspectives: The Reevaluation of Gutai
In the past, the most highly esteemed aspects of
Gutais lengthy eighteen-year career were the originality,
innovation, and pioneering spirit imbued in works from
the early period that could not be defined by conventional
concepts of painting and sculpture in part because they
were primarily staged outside or on the stage. This critical
perspective can be traced to the reevaluation of Gutai that
occurred as part of the Japon des Avant Gardes: 19101970 exhibition, held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in
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It is certainly true that many works from this era
suggest the influence of emerging trends in abstract
expression, particularly American movements such
as Optical art, Hard-edge and Systemic painting, and
Primary Structures. Even so, there is surely a need to
carefully verify and reevaluate the historical facts of the
pioneering character and international influence of the
works that transcend conventional notions of painting
and sculpture from the early period which serves as
the foundation for Gutais global fame. It is indisputable
that extremely original and innovative expressions
emerged during the early period based on Yoshiharas
stern exhortations to avoid copying others and create
things that had never been made before, but it would be
wrong to imply that there was absolutely no precedent
for contemporary expressive formats such as installations
and Environmental art prior to the existence of Gutai.2
There is also a tendency to overestimate Gutai based on
the form of the works and documentary photographs as
in the case of single images that capture a momentary
action in Shiraga Kazuos Challenging Mud and Murakami
Saburos Entrance. This has given rise to the misconception
that the artists actions were in themselves works and led
to the groups reputation as pioneers in performance art
without explaining that the pictures were actually taken
at displays of the artists production processes that were
staged for the media instead of being performed for a
crowd of spectators.
It is vital that we distant ourselves from stereotypes
of this kind particularly prevalent abroad which place
an overwhelming emphasis on innovative expression
and attempt to put forward a revised view of Gutai that
What was the essence of Gutai? In an eighteenyear career defined by constant change, there was
one aspect about the group that remained consistent:
Yoshiharas reliance on mottos like Dont copy anyone
else! and Make something thats never been made
before!
Both of these sentiments were designed to
inspire the exhaustive pursuit of original and innovative
expression. But why was Yoshihara so obsessed with
originality and innovation? In 1955, not long after Gutais
formation, Yoshihara wrote:
It is our desire to embody the fact that our
spirit is free. It is also our hope that no restrictions will
be placed on the desire to experience fresh sensations
through every form of expression. Yoshihara Jiro,
Hakkan ni saishite (On the Occasion of Publication),
Gutai, inaugural issue, Gutai Art Association, 1955
[The Gutai artists] are concerned more with
putting all of themselves into the act of creating and
painting than whether or not what theyre doing is art.
Things that dont fit into the category of art seem to be
even more appealing to them, and they have absolutely
no intention of following in anyone elses footsteps. More
than anything, they take pleasure in leaping into unknown
worlds and surprising themselves. And they believe
that discovery itself merits respect. The Gutai artists
are especially serious and joyous about experiencing
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Several of the phrases contained in these
passages our spirit is free, making direct connections
between spirit and matter, fresh sensations, serious
and joyous, and burning with life hold the key
to grasping the essence of Gutai. In other words, to
Yoshihara, the acts of destroying preconceived notions
and developing original and innovative expressions
was an act of freeing the spirit and completely burning
with life, or in contemporary parlance, his ideas were
a synonym for self-actualization. And it is the most
direct and suitable expression of such these impressions,
attained through self-actualization, using color, form, and
matter that lies at the heart of the groups work (as well
as the name Gutai). Yoshihara was fixated on abstract
expression and maintained an absolute hatred for the
use of reproductive, descriptive, and literary elements in
art. To him, a work was not something that functioned to
visualize a narrative that was derived from an image of an
object but was instead a direct expression of the spirit.
Born in 1905, Yoshihara attend junior high school
(which under the old education system was equivalent
to senior high school) in the early 20s, or the latter part
of the Taisho Period, which continued for fifteen years. In
a drive to modernize industries from the previous Meiji
Period, the Taisho era is remembered as a time of great
modernization in terms of the inner world of the individual.
Against a backdrop of human rights and an increased
awareness of the meaning of existence, the period
would later give rise to movements and philosophical
trends such as Taisho democracy and Taisho liberalism,
and similarly inspired an expressionistic movement that
placed great importance on individuality, spirituality, and
vitality in a variety of artistic fields. As suggested by the
passage above, it is evident that Yoshihara was strongly
influenced by the Shirakaba-ha, which were renowned
for an emphasis on the dignity of human life and personal
character, idealism, humanitarianism, and individualism,
and that he was also deeply affected by the distinctive
expressions of the Post-Impressionists, who were being
introduced in the same type of publications.
Moreover, in retracing Yoshiharas philosophy
of assigning the greatest value to the spirit and selfactualization, one ultimately arrives at the education the
artist received as a youth as indicated by the following
passage dating from his later years:
During that period, in terms of literature, novels
connected to the Shirakaba-ha [lit. White Birch
School] and [the literary journal] Shinshicho were
being widely read, and in junior high school, Russian
literature like Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky
was also popular, as it was somewhat trendy to be a
literary youth. I was also greatly influenced by art
magazines like Mizue and Atelier, and devoted myself
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Seen in this context, the mottos Yoshihara used in
Gutai seem to have germinated in the 20s, long before
the formation of the group, and to have assumed special
significance in the revitalization of the modern spirit that
was prohibited during the war. Just as the government,
which at the time was deeply rooted in the imperial
system, restricted the Shirakaba-has advocacy of the
aforementioned values, not every approach to liberating
the spirit and attaining self-actualization was admissible
in Gutai. It is a well-known fact that Yoshihara wielded
an absolute power that extended far beyond the scope
of the word leader. Not only did he determine the
Not only is Gutai nearly the only Japanese art
group that is known abroad, it is also a group that is
burdened at home with Japans postwar recovery. And
at this point in time, there is much that we, as Japanese,
can learn from the spiritual legacy of this movement.
Notes:
Abridged from a text for the catalogue of GUTAI: The Spirit of an Era, The National
Art Center, Tokyo, 2012.
The principal Gutai retrospectives that have been held in Japan and abroad since the
80s are as follows:
1985 The Jiro Yoshihara and Gutai exhibition is held at Ashiya Civic Center,
The Group Gutai: Painting and Action (Grupo Gutai: Pintura y Accion) exhibition
is held at the Museo Espaol de Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid, and later travels to
Belgrade and Kobe.
1990 The Gutai: The Avant-garde Group Unfinished exhibition is held at the
Shoto Museum of Art in Tokyo. The Japan of Avant-garde: The Group Gutai in the
50s (Giappone allavanguardia; Il Gruppo Gutai negli anni Cinquanta) exhibition is
held at the Galleria Nazionale dArte Moderna in Rome.
1991 The Gutai Japanese Avant-garde 1954-1965 (Gutai Japanische Avantgarde
1954-1965) exhibition is held at the Mathildenhhe Darmstadt, The Adventurers of
Paintings Gutai exhibition is held at the Fukuoka Art Museum.
1992 The Artists of Gutai Art Association exhibition is held at the Miyagi Museum
of Art, The Gutai I: 1954-1958 exhibition is held at the Ashiya City Museum of Art &
History, The Outdoor Exhibition Revived, organized by the Ashiya City Museum of
Art & History, is held in Ashiya Park.
1993 The Gutai II: 1959-1965 exhibition and The Gutai III: 1965-1972 exhibition
exhibition are held at the Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, The Challenge of Art
After the War: Jiro Yoshihara and the Gutai Group exhibition is held at the Museum
of Art in Ehime, The Gutai 1955-56: A Restarting Point of Japanese Contemporary
Art exhibition is held at the Penrose Institute in Tokyo.
1999 The Gutai exhibition is held at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in
Paris.
2002 The Artists of Gutai Art Association exhibition is held at the Miyagi Museum
of Art.
2004 The GUTAI 1954-1972 exhibition is held at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum
of Art.
2009 The Under Each Others Spell: The Gutai Group and New York exhibition is
held at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in New York.
2010 The Gutai Group exhibition is held at Museo Cantonale dArte, Lugano.
Works that consisted of an entire space containing an art object and performance
art that made use of the stage are reminiscent of the so-called New Art Movements
that flourished in Tokyo and Kobe in the mid-20s. For more information on the Kobe
movement, see Harada no mori no shinko bijutsu undo (The Harada no Mori New
Art Movement), Hanshinkan Modernism, Tankosha, 1997, pp. 190-192. There is a
strong possibility that this movement influenced Yoshihara, as he was attending
Kwansei Gakuin University during this period in Kobe.
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