Shozo Shimamoto
Contributors: Yoshihara, Jirō, 1905-1972; Axel Vervoordt (Gallery)
Publisher: Vervoordt Foundation
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Antwerp
Language: eng
Number of pages: 111
ISBN-13: 9789492321282
Subjects: Exhibitions; Expositions; Gutai Bijutsu Kyōkai
Description: A founding member of the Japanese avant-garde Gutai movement, Shozo Shimamoto (1928- 2013, Japan) is one of the first Japanese painters to ban the paintbrush. Shimamoto was well known for using different media and exploring different concepts of time and space, while simultaneously focusing on mechanic methods within his practice. As such, he perforated canvases or smashed glass bottles on them, which were filled with paint. He shot paint with cannons on large sheets of vinyl, made sculptures from razorblades, scratched films, and made violent and destructive installations with light and music for the theatre stage. Shimamoto's so-called ?performances of destruction? were mostly executed in the public space thereby exhibiting the new artistic spirit of those times. Despite the distinct resemblance between Gutai projects and avant-garde artists such as Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein and Antoni Tàpies, the Japanese artists' influence on the Western avant-garde has never fully been acknowledged.
Notes: Catalogue of two exhibitions: Shozo Shimamoto held March 14 - May 5 2012 and Shimamoto-The Gutai works, held Sept. 3-Oct. 3, 2015, both at Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.

Texts by Shozo Shimamoto, Jiro Yoshihara ... [et al].