F ierce, primal, yet charged with a hypnotic grace and fluidity, Kari (Lot 46) from 1991 hails from Kazuo Shiraga’s post-Gutai period, and is utterly resplendent in its rich swatches of chromatic splendor and ferocious physicality. With its swirling shades of deep crimson and blackberry, Kari echoes both the signature raw blood-red of Shiraga’s early 1950s works, yet exhibits a balletic dynamism that attests to the artist’s matured mastery of his renowned feet-painting technique. Reveling in the tension between body, matter and spirit, Kari exudes a fiery tactility and raw, visceral violence that has come to define the artist’s exhilarating oeuvre. The work’s title, Kari, is the Japanese word for to hunt, to raid and to the gather, epitomizing the dialectic relationship between beauty and violence that acted as the paradigm of the post-war Gutai artists. Seeking to unite ‘instrument’ (gu) with ‘body’ (tai) in the devastating aftermath of post-Hiroshima Japan, Shiraga’s work utilized an irreducible corporeality to battle with and awaken the raw vitality of matter itself. Exhibited as part of Kazuo Shiraga: Painting Born out of Fighting held at the Yokosuka Museum of Art in 2009, the present work is the culminating opus of the performance of and transcendence from this historic violence. Shiraga once said that his art “needs not just beauty, but something horrible” (Kazuo Shiraga, interview with Ming Tiampo, Ashiya, Japan, 1998); by engaging with, and transcending, violence, Shiraga was able to “wrestl[e] with the demons that haunted him and his generation, at the same time opening the possibility of hope for the years ahead” (Body and Matter: The Art of Kazuo Shiraga and Satoru Hoshino, New York, 2015, p. 23).

Born in 1924 in Aagasaki, Japan, Shiraga originally trained in Nihonga at the Kyoto City University of Arts. The artist soon turned to oil, creating markings or scratchings with his fingers; beginning with these early methods, Shiraga’s art form gradually abjured the brush and took its final form in his celebrated foot paintings. In 1955, a young Shiraga stunned audiences at the 1st Gutai Art Exhibition by hurling himself into an arena of mud and engaging in a violent, almost sensual struggle with the earth. Immersing himself within his canvas as opposed to merely pouring or painting from above, these early performances laid down a ground-breaking paradigm for performance art, action painting, and the entire stage of post-war abstraction. In his post-Gutai years, Shiraga took up training in traditional ink and brush calligraphy in his later years to complement his technique and breadth of style. Such a re-embracing of this tradition lends Shiraga’s feet-strokes the essence and soul of masterful ink brushwork in the present work. Thrashing out an impassioned path of primal expression, Kari bares the essence and soul of masterful ink brushwork, exuding the thrilling vigour of the hunt with a profound grace.

《狩 》(拍品編號 46) 創作於1991 年，予人狂暴而原始的感覺，然而卻又有著一種令人神迷的優雅氣質和流暢感，來自白髮一雄的具體派時期後期，全畫綻放閃耀光芒，色彩絢麗的同時又散發狂野力量，令人深深著迷。畫中漩渦狀的深紅色和黑莓色調與白髮一雄 1950 年代初期作品標誌性的原始血紅色彩遙遙呼應，同時展現出芭蕾舞般的優雅活力，從中可領略到這位藝術家嫻熟的動態「足畫」技巧。《狩》讓觀者沉陶醉於身體、物質和精神之間的莫名張力，散發著熾熱原始的觸感和發自肺腑的狂暴，而這些都是讓白髮一雄作品風靡藝術界的特質。作品名稱《狩》在日文中包含狩獵、突襲和採集的意思，是戰後具體派藝術家創作模式的縮影，辯證美與暴力之間的關係。日本廣島在戰爭中承受了毀滅性的打擊，而在這樣的歷史背景之下，白髮一雄的藝術創作企圖將「具」(器具）與「體」（肉體）結合為一，利用不可還原的物質性來對抗並喚醒物質本身的原始生命力。白髮一雄通過藝術演繹這段歷史，再而超越歷史，本畫則是當中的巔峰之作，曾展於横須賀美術館 2009 年〈白髮一雄展〉。白髮一雄曾說，他的藝術「不僅需要美，還需要一些可怕的東西」（摘自白髮一雄與蔡宇鳴對談，1998年，日本蘆屋市，1998 年）； 白髮一雄通過與暴力交涉並且超越暴力，「與纏繞他和他那一代人的夢魘搏鬥，同時為未來的歲月帶來希望」（《身體與物質：白髮一雄與星野曉的藝術》展覽圖錄，紐約， 2015年，頁23）。

白髮一雄1924 年生於日本尼崎市，曾於京都市立藝術大學就讀。這位藝術家很快便改用油彩創作，以手指或指甲蘸取顏料創作，漸漸全盤摒棄畫筆，最終演化成著名的足繪作品。1955 年，年輕的白髮一雄在第一屆具體派藝術展上一鳴驚人，縱身跳進放滿泥土的舞台，以狂野、近乎帶著肉慾的身法與土地搏鬥。他不是僅僅將顔料倒在畫布之上，也不只是繪畫，而是將自身沉浸在畫布中，這些早期的演出為行為藝術、行動畫和戰後抽象藝術的整個階段奠定了開創性的範例。白髮一雄在晚年、即在其後具體派時代開始修習傳統水墨書法，拓展藝術風格和技巧。這段回歸本源的經歷，為他的足繪藝術注入了水墨神韻，點明了他的東方本源。《狩》以激烈的情感開展出原始、狂野的藝術表達方式，將水墨的精髓和靈魂展露無遺，散發著狩獵的澎湃動感，同時卻又優雅動人，引人深思。