Kazuo Shiraga
Kazuo Shiraga
Kazuo Shiraga was born in 1924 in Amagasaki, Japan. After studying Nihon-ga (Japanese-style painting) in Kyoto and growing frustrated with the stylistic and material confines he found in Nihon-ga, Shiraga participated in Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai (Contemporary Art Discussion Group) with several other students and began experimenting with making oil paintings using his hands and fingers. Shiraga found the viscosity of tube-ready oil paint more “free” than the inconvenient and thin ink-based pigments he had used in painting school. In 1954, Shiraga joined renowned Japanese avant-garde collective Gutai and was inspired by Gutai’s leader, Jiro Yoshihara, to further push his performative, material-driven painting practice in order to “make something that never existed” before. During his time as a member of Gutai, Shiraga simultaneously pursued oil painting and performance, often integrating the two practices in performance-painting pieces as Challenging Mud (1955), in which the artist used his entire body to manipulate mud as if it were thick, pliable paint, and Ultramodern Sanbaso (1957), in which he wore a dramatic red costume with elongated and wing-like arms, his movements creating slashes of color against the stark black backdrop of the stage. Shiraga continued this exploration of the relationship between body and material over the course of his career, and is best known for the large-scale foot paintings he made well into his eighties. The foot paintings explore themes of Japanese history, Chinese mythology, and Buddhism while preserving the explosive movements of an artist who continuously sought a dynamic and collaborative relationship with his medium.
Selected Works
Exhibitions
Museum Exhibitions
Selected Press
The Art Newspaper | Gutai's Spectacular Rise
June 1, 2017
Harper's Bazaar Arabia | Guggenheim Abu Dhabi: The Act Of An Artist
March 22, 2017
Art Market Monitor | Shiraga and Gutai Market Tread Water Waiting for Breakout
March 6, 2017
Londonist | Art Review: dark & abstract
March 6, 2017
The Telegraph | The Japanese Radicals taking the art world by storm
February 28, 2017
Galleries Now | Kazuo Shiraga
February 6, 2017
Financial Times | Critics' Choice - Kazuo Shiraga
February 4, 2017
Financial Times | The comeback kings and queens of art
May 20, 2016
ArtAsiaPacific | Fancy Footwork
July 1, 2015
Momus | Seeing Red: Understanding Kazuo Shiraga's Sudden Fame
April 8, 2015
C File Daily | Kazuo Shiraga and Satoru Hoshino at Dominique Lévy Gallery, New York
April 1, 2015
Bloomberg | This Is How an Unknown Japanese Artist—Who Painted With His Feet—Became a Star
March 25, 2015
Blouin Artinfo | Unseen Eye on Gutai
March 1, 2015
Cultured | A Lasting Impression
March 1, 2015
The New York Times | Art World Rediscovers Kazuo Shiraga
February 27, 2015
Christies | Action Painting: The body electric
February 16, 2015
Vogue | Watch This Exclusive Video of Kazuo Shiraga Action Painting
February 12, 2015
Art News | Preview: ‘Body and Matter’ at Dominique Lévy
January 28, 2015
T Magazine | An Inventive Postwar Japanese Painter Has His Moment
January 28, 2015
Observer | 8 Things to Do in New York’s Art World Before January 31
January 27, 2015
Artnews | 6 Art Events to Attend In New York This Week
January 26, 2015
Artnet | Your Art Agenda: 8 Things to Do This Week
January 26, 2015
Widewalls | Body and Matter: Shiraga and Hoshino
January 2, 2015
Daily AD | Three Exhibitions Spotlight Japanese Artist Kazuo Shiraga
December 31, 2014
art market monitor | ABMB Sales Report
December 10, 2014
More Information
Artists
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Roman Opalka
Adrian Piper
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Carol Rama
Martial Raysse
Peter Regli
Germaine Richier
Karin Schneider
Joel Shapiro
Kazuo Shiraga
Pierre Soulages
Pat Steir
Tu Hongtao
Günther Uecker
Zao Wou-Ki
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