ICHION CONTEMPORARY is pleased to present the exhibition "GUTAI Lives On | GUTAI: An Enduring Spirit"from January 13(Monday) to May 3 (Saturday), 2025, in celebration of the gallery's opening.
“GUTAI Lives On | GUTAI: An Enduring Spirit” revisits the philosophy and creative legacy of the Gutai Art Association, an influential art movement born in postwar Japan. Since its founding in 1954, Gutai has pursued a dialogue between materials and the human spirit, earning recognition for its groundbreaking contributions. The declaration, “Gutai art does not falsify materials.
In Gutai art, human spirit and materials stand in opposition, yet shake hands,” embodies its vision of authentic creation.This exhibition centers on Shuji Mukai’s installation, which serves as a gateway for viewers to trace Gutai’s legacy through the works of key members, including Jiro Yoshihara, Kazuo Shiraga, and Atsuko Tanaka. Mukai’s philosophy, built on “accumulations of meaningless symbols,” rejects predetermined meanings and transforms the gallery into a dynamic space of resonance where sound and visual elements interact. His installation challenges the boundaries between static architecture and fluid creativity, reviving Gutai’s ethos of “direct expression.”
The venue, ICHION CONTEMPORARY, designed by Tadao Ando, exemplifies the poetry of materiality. With a width of less than four meters, the gallery embodies the interplay between restriction and possibility. Ando’s signature use of concrete highlights the tactile beauty of raw materials while allowing natural light to create ever-changing shadows. Friedrich Schlegel’s notion of architecture as “frozen music” and Goethe’s belief that architecture is “a poetic medium where spirit and material converge”
come alive in this space. Mukai’s intervention transforms the rigid form into a living entity, demonstrating how materials, when embraced honestly, can transcend their physicality and evoke profound emotional responses.
"GUTAI Lives On | GUTAI: An Enduring Spirit" offers an opportunity to experience the timeless resonance of Gutai’s universalmessage.
- Open:
11:00‒18:00 (Last entry at 17:30)
※Closes at 17:00 on the final day- Closed:
Sundays, Mondays, and Public Holidays
- Admission:
Free
- Artists:
Jiro Yoshihara, Kazuo Shiraga, Sadamasa Motonaga, Atsuko Tanaka, Shozo Shimamoto, Chiyu Uemae, Toshio Yoshida, Tsuruko Yamazaki, Takesada Matsutani, Shuji Mukai
*If you plan to visit with a group of 10 or more people, please make a reservation in advance by phone or email. Please note that entry will not be permitted on the day without a prior reservation.
EXHIBITION WORKS
Jiro Yoshihara "Blue and Red"
1970 Acrylic on canvas 195.0×260.5cm
Kazuo Shiraga "Iroe"
1966 Oil on canvas 90.5×116.5cm
Atsuko Tanaka "86D6"
1986 Gouache on paper 192.7×80.3cm
Takesada Matsutani "Wave 93-5"
1993 Mixed media 162.0×130.0cm
Shuji Mukai "Works No.01 - No.20"
2024 Mixed media Assorted sizes
Jiro Yoshihara "Blue and Red"
1970 Acrylic on canvas 195.0×260.5cm
Kazuo Shiraga "Iroe"
1966 Oil on canvas 90.5×116.5cm
Atsuko Tanaka "86D6"
1986 Gouache on paper 192.7×80.3cm
Takesada Matsutani "Wave 93-5"
1993 Mixed media 162.0×130.0cm
Shuji Mukai "Works No.01 - No.20"
2024 Mixed media Assorted sizes
SHUJI MUKAI
SHUJI MUKAI was born in 1936 in Kobe, Japan. In 1959, he met Sadamasa Motonaga at the Nishinomiya City Art Association and participated in the 8th Gutai Art Exhibition that same year. He officially joined the Gutai Art Association in 1961, becoming one of its youngest members. His artistic style is characterized by the accumulation of meaningless symbols, aiming to express the inefficacy of any value system—a concept that became the foundation of his unique creative approach. In 1964, MUKAI’s work was selected for the "New Japanese Painting and Sculpture" exhibition organized by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, which later toured across the United States. MoMA subsequently added his work to its permanent collection. In 1966, he created a large-scale installation at the jazz-themed café "Check" in Umeda, Osaka, where the entire room was covered with symbols—marking the first instance in Japan of filling an entire space with such motifs. In 2013, he participated in the Gutai retrospective exhibition "Gutai: Splendid Playground" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, where he recreated his iconic work "Symbol Room" and covered the museum’s elevators and restroom surfaces with millions of symbols.
Major Collections:
MoMA; Guggenheim Museum; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art.