The Gutai Group

This catalogue treating the Japanese movement Gutai is part of the initiatives which the Museo d'Arte of Lugano is in 2010 dedicating to the art and culture of Japan.
The Gutai Group was formed in 1954 in Osaka thanks to the initiative of the painter Jiro Yoshihara in collaboration with Akira Kanayma, Saburo Murakami, Kazuo Shiraga and Shozo Shimamoto. The Group was active for eighteen years, influencing post-war international art and anticipating phenomena such as Fluxus, performance and conceptual art.
The volume focuses on Gutai's first and second periods (1954-1960 and 1961-1964), the most intense and significative phases in the search for new languages.
The objective is to fully investigate the importance, influence and legacy of the Gutai Group after more than forty-five years from the time of its dissolution. Also the intense exchanges between the Gutai Group and the artistic circles of Paris and Turin are analyzed whereas a section of the exhibition treats the relationship with Fluxus, the Zero Group and Italian "Spazialismo".