Kazuo Shiraga

(Japanese, 1924–2008)

Kazuo Shiraga was a Japanese artist best known for his performative painting practice. Shiraga’s gestural style was influenced by American Abstract Expressionism and indicative of his participation in the Gutai avant-garde movement. The object of Gutai was to allow action and everyday life into the creation of dynamic artworks. The artist would suspend himself over his canvases, swinging back and forth, creating marks with his feet, creating a unique texture and thickness to his abstract swirls and splatters. “I want to paint as though rushing around a battlefield, exerting myself to collapse from exhaustion,” the artist once proclaimed. Born on August 12, 1924 in Amagasaki, Japan, he graduated from the Kyoto Municipal Special School of Painting in 1948, and joined the Gutai group in 1954. In a seminal early work, Challenge to the Mud (1955), the artist explored the gesture of sculpting clay by throwing himself and contorting his semi-naked body in a pit of mud. Through the following decades, Shiraga continued to work on activating art through moving a body in space. He died on April 8, 2008 in Amagasaki, Japan. Today, the artist’s works are included in the collections of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Hiroshima City Museum of Art, among others.

Kazuo Shiraga Artworks

Kazuo Shiraga (1,116 results)
Kouseki, 1990

Kazuo Shiraga

Kouseki, 1990

Sale Date: October 25, 2014

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Shinmi no natsu, 1991

Kazuo Shiraga

Shinmi no natsu, 1991

Sale Date: October 25, 2014

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Work

Kazuo Shiraga

Work

Sale Date: October 25, 2014

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Untitled, 1965

Kazuo Shiraga

Untitled, 1965

Sale Date: October 15, 2014

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Source of River, 1998

Kazuo Shiraga

Source of River, 1998

Sale Date: October 15, 2014

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Saigō, 2000

Kazuo Shiraga

Saigō, 2000

Sale Date: October 5, 2014

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Goshoku Zanmai, 1976

Kazuo Shiraga

Goshoku Zanmai, 1976

Sale Date: October 5, 2014

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Untitled

Kazuo Shiraga

Untitled

Sale Date: September 19, 2014

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Untitled

Kazuo Shiraga

Untitled

Sale Date: September 5, 2014

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Phantom

Kazuo Shiraga

Phantom

Sale Date: September 5, 2014

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Work

Kazuo Shiraga

Work

Sale Date: July 26, 2014

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Untitled, 1961

Kazuo Shiraga

Untitled, 1961

Sale Date: July 5, 2014

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Untitled, 1965

Kazuo Shiraga

Untitled, 1965

Sale Date: June 28, 2014

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Explosion, 1950

Kazuo Shiraga

Explosion, 1950

Sale Date: June 28, 2014

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Work, 1965

Kazuo Shiraga

Work, 1965

Sale Date: July 4, 2014

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Work

Kazuo Shiraga

Work

Sale Date: July 4, 2014

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Tsu-Riki

Kazuo Shiraga

Tsu-Riki

Sale Date: July 4, 2014

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Improvisation I, 1997

Kazuo Shiraga

Improvisation I, 1997

Sale Date: July 4, 2014

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Work, 1970

Kazuo Shiraga

Work, 1970

Sale Date: July 4, 2014

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Taki, 1970–1979

Kazuo Shiraga

Taki, 1970–1979

Sale Date: June 10, 2014

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Kasuminowa, 1976

Kazuo Shiraga

Kasuminowa, 1976

Sale Date: June 10, 2014

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Jikkai-zu gaki chikushokai, 1976

Kazuo Shiraga

Jikkai-zu gaki chikushokai, 1976

Sale Date: June 10, 2014

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Sans titre

Kazuo Shiraga

Sans titre

Sale Date: June 5, 2014

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Viviparity, 1996

Kazuo Shiraga

Viviparity, 1996

Sale Date: June 5, 2014

Auction Closed