MOTONAGA SADAMASA ( ) In 1955 Motonaga turn to making abstract objects in SEM-ART

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1 MOTONAGA SADAMASA ( ) In 1955 Motonaga turn to making abstract objects in addition to two-dimensional works. In 1953 his painting Kiiro no rafu (Yellow Nude, 1953) was awarded the Holbein Prize at the Ashiya City Art Exhibition, and caught the eye of the avant-garde artist Jiro Yoshihara. Yoshihara invited Motonaga to participate in the Gutai group's Modern Art Outdoor Experimental Exhibition to Challenge the Midsummer Sun held in 1955 in Ashiya Park, where Motonaga suspended vinyl tubes filled with colored water from the branches of trees as his contribution. From then on, Motonaga experimented with variations of his Water Work and with performance pieces involving smoke, in addition to making paintings and objects. In 1958, inspired partly by the tarashikomi technique of accumulated, pooled pigment found in traditional Japanese painting, Motonaga began to make paintings generated by chance interactions. On tilted canvases that had been prepared with under drawings, Motonaga spilled paint along the outlines of the compositions' formal components to create lively works that earned recognition as part of an international Informel movement, and established him as one of postwar Japanese avant-garde art's representative artists. On the invitation of the Japan Society, Motonaga spent the year in New York, followed by time in Europe. Returning to Japan, he used acrylic paint and airbrush techniques to make lyrical abstractions, which led in the 1970s to a more whimsical style employing bright, saturated colors and humorous titles, known as Funny Art. At this time he also branched out into practices as diverse as print-making, film, pottery, illustration, car painting, tapestry and chair design. Throughout his career, Motonaga earned numerous prizes and distinctions. Notably, in 1983 he was recipient of the Japanese Art Grand-Prix; in 1988 he was made a chevalier of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; and in 1991 he was presented with the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor for academic and artistic achievement, awarded by the Government of Japan. Recent solo exhibitions included the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003 and Mie Prefectural Art Museum in Individually and as a member of Gutai, he exhibited extensively in international exhibitions, including at the Venice Biennale in 1993 and in Font: 1

2 Biography Born in Ueno City, Japan Graduated from Mie Prefecture Ueno Commercial School Joined Gutai Art Association Art Exhibition of Japan Left Gutai Art Association Died in Amagasaki, Japan Awards Received Prize for Excellence at 6th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan Received National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto Prize at 10th Contemporary Received 2nd Art and Culture Promotion Association s Award, 15th Japan Art Grand Prix from Shincho Foundation, and Grand Prix at 4th International Received Hyogo Prefectural cultural Award Awarded Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters Received Medal with Purple Ribbon and Osaka Citizen s Testimonial Awarded Osaka Art Prize Received Kobe Shimbun Peace Prize Received Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette Received Culture merit Award of Mie Prefecture Selected solo exhibitions Sadamasa Motonaga, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Tsu City, Japan Motonaga Sadamasa, Nerima Museum of Arts, Tokyo, Japan Motonaga Sadamasa, Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum, Nagano, Japan Motonaga Sadamasa, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan Motonaga Sadamasa, Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya, Japan Motonaga Sadamasa, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Tsu, Japan Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan Asaki Gallery, Kyoto, Japan Ginza Wako Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Sakura Gallery, Nagoya, Japan Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2

3 Selected group exhibitions Gutai: The Spirit of an Era, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan Explosion! Painting as Action, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden Nul = 0 - Dutch avant-garde in an international context, , Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, The Netherlands Gutai: dipingere con il tempo e lo spazio, Museo Cantonale d Arte, Lugano, Switzerland Collection 3. Japanese Art , NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan Japanese Art , The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, Romania Gutai: Painting with Time and Space, Museo Cantonale d Arte Lugano, Lugano, CH Under Each Other s Spell: The Gutai and New York, UB Art Galleries - University of Buffalo, Buffalo, USA Japanese Oil Painting from the Collections, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi, Japan La Biennale di Venezia, 53a Esposizione Internazionale d Arte, Fare Mondi, Venice, Italy Under Each Other s Spell: Gutai and New York, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, New York, USA (Travelling Weltanschauung Visione Del Mondo, Art Forum Würth Capena, Capena, Italy Motonaga Sadamasa and Nakatsuji Etsuko: the World of Picture Books, Itami City Museum of Art, Itami, Japan Artempo - Where Times Becomes Art, Museo Fortuny, Venise, Italy Zero. Internationale Künstler-Avantgarde der 50er/60er Jahre, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany (Travelling Zéro, Musée d Art moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France Resounding Spirit - Japanese Contemporary Art of the 1960s, Samek Art Gallery, Lewis burg, USA Gutai , Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan Artists of Gutai Art Association, Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, Japan Le Tribù dell Arte, Galleria Civica d Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy Gutai, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France Torino Parigi New York Osaka. Tapié. Un Art Autre, Galleria Civica d Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino, Turin, Italy (Travelling Japanese Art, 1960s First Phase: Japanese Summer I Don t Give a Damn Any more!, Art Tower Mito ATM, Mito, Japan Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (Travelling Gutai II: , Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan Gutai III: , Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan La Biennale di Venezia, 45a Esposizione Internazionale d Arte, Passagio ad Oriente, Venice, Italy Challenge of Art After the War: Jiro Yoshihara and the Gutai Group, Ehime Museum of Art, Matsuyama, Japan Gutai 1955/56: Restarting Point for Japanese Contemporary Art, Penrose Institute of Contemporary Arts, Tokyo, Japan (Travelling Artists of Gutai Art Association, Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, Japan Gutai I: , Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya, Japan Outdoor Exhibition Revisited, Ashiya Park, Ashiya, Japan Gutai Japanische Avantgarde , Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany Adventurers of Paintings Gutai, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan Gutai: The Avant-Garde Group Unfinished, Shoto Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan Giappone all avanguardia. Il Gruppo Gutai negli anni Cinquanta, Galleria Nazionale d Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy 3

4 Japon des Avant-Gardes , Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Jiro Yoshihara and Gutai, Ashiya Civic Center, Ashiya, Japan Action and Emotion, Paintings of the 50s, Informel, Gutai, Cobra, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan Grupo Gutai: Pintura y Acción, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, Spain (Travelling Series of Kansai Artists: Motonaga Sadamasa and Shiraga Kazuo, Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, Japan Artists Today 2: Takamatsu Jiro and Motonaga Sadamasa, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan Jiro Yoshihara and Today s Aspects of Gutai, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan Beauty of Space, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Utsunomiya, Japan Eighteen Years of Gutai Art, Osaka Prefectural Gallery, Osaka, Japan Four Abstract Artists, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan Aspetti dell Informale. Mostra storica Internazionale, Pinacoteca Provinciale, Bari, Italy Exhibition at the entrance of Expo 70 Midori Pavilion by the Gutai Group, Midori Pavi lion, Osaka, Japan An Exhibition of Prints by Eight Gutai Artists, Gallery Iteza, Kyoto, Japan (Travelling Spazi astratti. Dall intuizione alla concettualizzazione, Galleria d Arte Cortina, Milan, Italy 1st Hiroshima Renaissance Art Exhibition, Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, Hiroshima, Japan 20th Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan 21st Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition Only in the Night, Miyazaki Kanko Hotel, Miyazaki, Japan Gutai Group Exhibition, Heide Hildebrand Gallery, Klagenfurt, Austria 19th Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan (Travelling 1st Japan Art Festival, Union Carbide Building, New York, USA NUL 1966 Art Exhibition (Nul Negentienhonderd zesenzestig), International Gallery Orez, The Hague, The Netherlands 2ème Salon International des Galeries Pilotes Lausanne, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Art Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland 17th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Yokohama, Japan (Travelling Moderne Malerei aus Japan, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland NUL 1965 Art Exhibition (Nul Negentienhonderd vijfenzestig), Stedelijk Museum, Ams terdam, Netherlands The New Japanese Painters and Sculptures, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (Travelling 15th Gutai Art Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan 16th Gutai Art Exhibition, Keio Department Store, Tokyo, Japan Groupe Gutai, Galerie Stadler, Paris, France (Travelling 14th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan Contemporary Japanese Painting and Sculpture, Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C., USA 12th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan 13th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan Exposition d Art Moderne, Grand Palais, Paris, France 11th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan Strutture e Stile, Galleria Civica d Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy 4

5 Don t Worry, the Moon Won t Fall Down: Gutai Art and Morita Modern Dance, Sankei Hall, Osaka, Japan The Continuité et Avant-garde au Japon, International Center of Aesthetic Research, Turin, Italy 10th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan (Travelling XII Premio Lissone internazionale per la pittura, Palazzo del Centro del Mobile, Lissone, Italy The International Sky Festival, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan 9th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan Four Japanese Artists, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA Arte Nuova, Esposizione Internazionale di pittura e scultura, Circolo degli Artisti in Palazzo Graneri, Turin, Italy 8th Gutai Art Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan (Travelling The Fifteen Japanese Contemporary Artists Recommended by Tapié, Gendai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan XI Premio Lissone internazionale per la pittura, Palazzo del Centro del Mobile, Lissone, Italy 2nd Gutai Art on the Stage, Asahi Hall, Osaka, Japan International Art of a New Era: Informel and Gutai, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, Japan (Travelling Gutai Small Works Exhibition (later known as 5th Gutai Art, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan The Gutai Group Exhibition (later know as 6th Gutai Art, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA (Travelling 3rd Gutai Art Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan Gutai Art on the Stage, Sankei Hall, Osaka, Japan (Travelling 4th Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan One Day Only Outdoor Exhibition (also known as the Ruins, Mukogawa River, Amagasaki, Japan Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition, Ashiya Park, Ashiya, Japan 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan Experimental Outdoor Exhibition of Modern Art to Challenge the Midsummer Sun, Ashiya Park, Ashiya, Japan 1st Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, Japan 5

6 MOTONAGA SADAMASA UNTITLED, x 74 cm Lacquer & oil on canvas Signed S Motonaga and dated 65 in the lower right 6

7 7 GUTAI exhibition at SEM ART GALLERY