Gutai

具体美術協会 / 1954–1972 / Style / Japanese Postwar Avant-garde

Acts directly on body, mud, paper, water, smoke and light bulbs, making the work an event in which spirit does not master material and each exposes the nature of the other.

Gutai — 『Gutai: Splendid Playground』展示風景（© Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation、同館より引用） — 『Gutai: Splendid Playground』展示風景（© Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation、同館より引用）

Gutai — Footprints in a work by Kazuo Shiraga (detail) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Jean-marc.bottazzi — Footprints in a work by Kazuo Shiraga (detail) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Jean-marc.bottazzi

Gutai — 嶋本昭三ボトル・クラッシュによる絵画 2000 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Massmell — 嶋本昭三ボトル・クラッシュによる絵画 2000 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Massmell

At a glance

Visual cues

Body colliding with material
Outdoor exhibitions
Tearing, throwing, treading
Participation and play

Best used for

Public making and performance where the process and its traces are what is shown.
Outdoor or temporary shows that let the audience feel material meeting body.

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Dictionary entry

Type: Keep records to date and act described, adding no meaning through a title.
Composition: Put the work outdoors or in a passage, letting viewers set their distance.
Material: Mud, paper, water, bulbs and paint, keeping the marks of tearing and treading.
Caution: Restaging the physical gesture without responding to what the material does leaves only spectacle. Read the thought behind it, postwar Japan, the autonomy of material and the audience taking part.
Further study: Yoshihara Jirō / Shiraga Kazuo / Tanaka Atsuko / Gutai Art Manifesto

Related entries

Abstract Expressionism (抽象表現主義)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Rebellion.Compare Gutai and Abstract Expressionism
Fluxus (フルクサス)Shared effects: Rebellion / Play.Compare Gutai and Fluxus

Cite this entry

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