Between Action and the Unknown: The Art of Kazuo Shiraga and Sadamasa Motonaga will examine the full arcs of the artists’ careers, from their early works to their 18-year engagement with the Gutai Art Association—the leading avant-garde group of postwar Japanese artists—to their later masterworks created in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s. Drawing from among the best collections in Japan, the exhibition will include paintings, drawings, photographs, films, small-scale sculpture, Gutai-related ephemera and re-creations of outdoor installations—many of which have never been exhibited in the United States. Organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Japan Foundation in Tokyo, the exhibition highlights the experimental and innovative quality of Shiraga’s and Motonaga’s creative production through nearly 60 works of art and historical materials.
Admission is FREE
Watch the installation of Motonaga’s Work (Water)—“the world’s first water scultpure”—below:
Between Action and the Unknown: The Art of Kazuo Shiraga and Sadamasa Motonaga is co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Japan Foundation. The presentation is made possible by TWO X TWO for AIDS and Art, an annual fundraising event that jointly benefits amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research and the Dallas Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Initiative, and Nippon Cargo Airlines, with special support from Ishibashi Foundation. Air transportation in Dallas provided by American Airlines.
Images: Sadamasa Motonaga, Work, 1962, oil paint and synthetic resin on canvas, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Yamamura Collection), © 2015 Estate of Sadamasa Motonaga; Kazuo Shiraga, Tenshosei Botsuusen, 1960, oil on canvas, The Rachofsky Collection, © 2015 Shiraga Hisao; Sadamasa Motonaga, Piron Piron, 1975, acrylic on canvas, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, © 2015 Estate of Motonaga Sadamasa; Kazuo Shiraga, Daiitokuson, 1973, oil on canvas, Amagasaki City, courtesy Amagasaki Cultural Center © 2015 Shiraga Hisao; Sadamasa Motonaga, Work 66-1, 1966, oil and synthetic resin on canvas, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo © 2015 Estate of Motonaga Sadamasa; Kazuo Shiraga, Difficult Voyage, 1949, oil on canvas, Amagasaki City, courtesy Amagasaki Cultural Center © 2015 Shiraga Hisao