As one of the founding members of the Gutai Art Association, Masanobu (1911–1995) was committed to the core Gutai principles of originality, experimentation, and using materials to redefine the boundaries of art on the path toward expressing human spiritual freedom. Our stand at Frieze New York is devoted to the artist to introduce this essential work to the public. In collaboration with the artist’s estate, Axel Vervoordt Gallery will publish a forthcoming monograph on the Japanese painter to thoroughly explore his vital work and career. 

This group of artists was active from 1954 up until 1972. Gutai was as much about process as it was about product. Gu means tool, measures, or a way of doing something, while tai means body. The Gutai considered it to mean “embodiment” and “concreteness”. Most important was the core idea to “do what no one has done before”, which led to ground-breaking approaches of art making. 

 Before Gutai, Masanobu had already been an experimental painter for twenty years. So within Gutai’s search for the new, he focused on paint itself to find an unknown aesthetic. The artist undertook an almost obsessive study on wash, brushstroke, scratching and scraping, based on the core properties of paint. Instead of using paint for representation or for the creation of sensual abstractions, he chose to present painting as what it is: colors, substance, and brushstrokes. Masanobu wanted to achieve a “pure painterly touch” and “living, moving paint” through the direct expression of his own energy and emotions.
The symbols on his canvases resulted from repeated hand movements, and from the combination of accidental effects with intentional composition.