Trajectory of the Avant-garde
Nishinippon Shinbun Culture section
September 26 - October 8, 1988

The "Kyushu-Ha Exhibition" at the Fukuoka City Museum of Art (until October 1. The exhibition,"Kyushu-Ha" (until October 1; closed on Mondays), is receiving a favorable response.Kyushu-Ha
is an avant-garde art group from Fukuoka that made a bold statement in Tokyo around 1960 with
its "anti-art" style of amorphous paintings and bizarre objet d'art.Their activities, which exploded
at a time when Japan was shaken by the Security Treaty and Miike disputes, are described indetail in the series "Kyushu-Ha and the Age of the Avant-garde that Ran Through" in this column.
quarter of a century has passed since then. How have these avant-garde artists, who gave a
shock to postwar art, lived after the storm has passed? Of the 50 members of the group, wehave traced the paths of a few typical ones who continue to work energetically and remaincommitted to "Kyushu-Ha" to this day.

Sakurai's ideology changes dramatically when he comes to the U.S.
Kyushu-Ha was a group of friends without a representative. But everyone seemed to recognize
takami Sakurai, a charismatic man with a beard who had the power to convince everyone bywaving his hands in the air, bubbling and ranting, as the leader of the group.

Sakurai, who has lived in France for 15 years, is very excited. Usually, he returns to Japan in thesummer, holds solo exhibitions in several cities, and then quickly retreats, but this year, he cameto Fukuoka early in April and has not yet returned. This year, however, he came to Fukuoka earlyin April and has not yet returned. He even seems poised to use the success of the "Kyushu-Ha

Exhibition" to launch a new movement.
He says, "I will take over the world," knowing that art can only come from individual artists throughthe Kyushu-ha movement, but he has been moving around energetically for five months and is
now repeating his performances. Is it that he cannot stand the situation of Japanese art, which
seems to have been taken over by commercialism, even though he lives abroad?

Kyushu-Ha Exhibition" was held three times.
Sakurai, who created unformel paintings using asphalt and sand and objects made from car tires
and other materials during his time at Kyushu-Ha, has changed dramatically since his first trip tothe United States in 1965.

Kyushu-Ha, which boasted of a certain unity despite its repeated breakups and dispersions,
could no longer hide its fissures in the late 1960s. Sakurai, who had tried to incorporate avantgarde art into Kyushu's culture in a self-serving manner but failed, turned his attention to theUnited States, which had risen to the center of contemporary art, with his characteristic boldness,saying, "I have never been frustrated before. He left the company he worked for and headed for
San Francisco, saying, "I'm going to make my abilities known.

While working part-time as a painter, he organized the first Kyushu-Ha exhibition, the"Negative Exhibition" (1966), with foreign artists and Masao Urata (now in Tokyo). With Ochi
Osamu (Fukuoka City) and others, who arrived one year later, he held the second Kyushu-Ha
exhibition (1967), adding works sent from Kyushu. The third exhibition (1968) was held by Ochiand Urata while Sakurai was back in Japan. Sakurai's love affair with Kyushu-Ha and the group
movement continued in the U.S. In his second trip to the U.S. in 1970, Sakurai started a konnyaku
commune that included foreign poets and musicians.

Enlightenment with LSD
San Francisco, where hippies were rampant, decisively changed Sakurai's view of art. It was
LSD and religion. Wandering in a visionary world on LSD. He encountered Hindu tantra (mandalalike paintings depicting the path to heaven).

“I was amazed to see a girl and a cow having sex. The cow, however, was the transformed formof God. When you realize that, it's really beautiful." When he learned about the world of illusion
and religion, he said, "Painting is an expression of emotion. He simply abandoned abstract
painting. It was the year after his first trip to the United States.

Sakurai, "instantly enlightened by LSD," creates images of women with big eyes while copying
Hindu paintings. It could be a woman surrounded by flowers or an angel with wings on her back.
It was the beginning of the "Road to Paradise" series, which continues to this day. 'I had neither
the avant-garde nor Europe in mind. It was about religion and spirit. The hippie idea of "love andpeace" was the groundwork.

It also adds an oriental touch.
But Europe was still on his mind. The ambition to "take on the world" also reared its head.

To take the world, I have to make it work in New York or Paris. That's a provincial idea, isn't it?
So, in 1973, he went to France. Since then, he has formed the group "Kusguri" and held
exhibitions, had solo shows in Paris, Tokyo, and Fukuoka, exhibited at the Salon de Mai, andsigned contracts with leading galleries in Paris, and has been actively expanding his activities.

Sakurai's paintings often feature intense images of red and black as the main colors, such ascountless women chanting "Hail to the Lord" and angels with multiple eyes. They are an ode tohumanity, but also a skepticism that the road to heaven is not so easy. The addition of an oriental
atmosphere to the works explores a new aspect of the artist's work.

“Get over me”“It's embarrassing to be sixty, but I still want to take on the world, and I want to rise to the top.

Because he is such a man, it is frustrating that few painters have emerged from the former
Kyushu-Ha who are recognized even in the center of the country. He said, "If you don't survive as
an artist, there is no meaning. Only those who survive are interesting. Go beyond me, kick me
down," he cries. He provokes his former colleagues by saying, "Come and fight with me." But it
has been many years since Kyushu-Ha, and most of the members are now in their mid-fifties andon their own paths. Naturally, the response was small. Still, I don't mind. Perhaps it is because
they have become more confident as writers that they can do it all by themselves in the end.