Shiraga Kazuo

signed in Japanese; signed, titled and dated 1989 in Japanese on the reverse, framed

Nakacho Konishi Arts, Tokyo
Acquired by the present owner from the above

This work is generally in good condition with minor craquelures visible in the lower right corner and upper half portion of the work. A color separation can be noticed in the upper center portion of the canvas, and two minor instances of flaking is observed near the lower left and right edges. When examined under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
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Dance of Divinity
Shiraga Kazuo

If you believe that your art has a spiritual meaning and it helps you develop yourself, such art will truly be on the cutting edge of global culture. – Shiraga Kazuo¹

Executed during Shiraga Kazuo’s fully mature period in the late 1980s, Reibu (Lot 1041) is a glorious maelstrom of energy resplendent in striking euphoric hues. The rich luminous colors are amongst the most aesthetically arresting of Shiraga’s 1980s works. Hailing from the artist’s accomplished post-Gutai period, the spectacular masterpiece exudes a charged virtuosic flair that attests to the matured perfection of his feet-painting technique. In his post-Gutai years Shiraga also experienced an emancipative evolution in psyche following his intense training as a Tendai Buddhist monk—a critical development that imbued his signature gestural dynamism with heightened monastic consciousness. Emanating from Shiraga’s dexterous swipes is a sense of transcendent jubilation: whilst preserving the raw volcanic tactility of his early works, the current lot is celebratory and exultant, superseding anguish with sublime elation.

Art for Shiraga was always regenerative, liberating and cathartic: one recalls the epic unforgettable scene at the conclusion of his seminal 1955 performance Challenging Mud, upon which fellow Gutai artist Kanayama Akira wrote that Shiraga arose from the work “as if emerging from a bath, refreshed”.² The current lot’s consummate choreography, centered balletic tension and balance communicate the artist’s spiritual mastery of his raw passions: in it we witness Shiraga raised from his angst, reveling in the formidable authority of matter, body and spirit. Central to Shiraga’s potent gesturality is the concept of shishitsu, meaning “innate characteristics and abilities”, which serves as the driving force behind the shaping of the self. Making art was a way for the legendary master to fully connect with his shishitsu—a means to connect with himself, through himself.

After Challenging Mud, another pivotal Shiraga performance is his 1957 Ultra-Modern Sanbasō. The 1957 Gutai Art on the Stage exhibition opened with Shiraga emerging alone on a lit stage, donning a theatrical red costume with a pointed hat and performing dramatic bodily movements. Accentuated by elongated wing-like sleeves, Shiraga’s arm actions created slashes of undulating color against the stage backdrop, constituting an homage to and parody of Japan’s oldest celebratory dance, Sanbasō (“divine dance”). With its brilliant palette of exuberantly rupturing color, the current lot echoes the festive undertones of Shiraga’s iconic performance. As Alexandra Munroe notes, while Euro-American Happenings fused art with life as a critique of commoditized culture, Shiraga’s Ultra-Modern Sanbasō was an “affirmation of art in life after [the country’s] near annihilation of culture”.³

Shiraga once described Japan’s post-war euphoria of political, social and economic liberation as a “splendid playground”.⁴ At once vigorously assertive and gracefully seductive, the power and elegance of the current lot stands testament to Shiraga’s profound joy of relentless creation, innovation, and technical and spiritual refinement. Unbeknownst to many, 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 his oriental roots lends Shiraga’s feet-strokes the essence and soul of masterful ink brushwork, gracing his by-then universally acclaimed canvases with transcendent traces of his Eastern origins.

¹ Shiraga Kazuo, “Kotai no kakuritsu”, tr. “The Establishment of the Individual”, Gutai no. 4, 1956, p. 6

² Kanayama Akira, “Shiraga Kazuo”, Gutai, no. 4, 1955, p. 9

³ Alexandra Munroe, “To Challenge the Mid-summer Sun”, in Japanese Art After 1945: Scream against the Sky, Guggenheim, 1994, p. 97

⁴ Refer to 3, p. 98