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A comprehensive introduction to the abstract painter Shiraga Kazuo, marking his 100th anniversary.
Shiraga Kazuo began action painting with his feet in the late 1950s when he belonged to the avant-garde art group Gutai. The group was dedicated to coming up with creations that had never existed before, and its young members used their imagination freely to produce new forms of expression; Shiraga’s works, in particular, were praised by the French art critic Michel Tapié when he visited Japan, and through him Shiraga became internationally well-known.

This book provides an in-depth look into Shiraga, from his life and career to the evolution of his work and his reputation in the art world up to the present day. More than 500 images are featured, including around 350 of Shiraga’s major works selected by the Shiraga Kazuo Memorial Room and Gutai Art Group researcher Hirai Shoichi. The wealth of additional materials encompasses archival photographs, a detailed chronology, Shiraga’s own writings, and interviews with people connected to him, resulting in a highly informative volume offering a comprehensive overview of the artist.

Shiraga Kazuo (1924–2008) was born in Amagasaki in Hyogo Prefecture as the eldest son of a kimono merchant. After graduating from the Kyoto Municipal School of Painting (present-day Kyoto City University of Arts), he switched from Japanese-style art to Western-style landscapes and portraits. Dissatisfied with conventional painting, he developed a technique of action, or foot, painting whereby he held onto a rope suspended from the ceiling above a canvas on the floor so he could sweep paint across it in all directions with his feet—a unique method that earned him international acclaim. He joined the Gutai Art Group, led by the painter Yoshihara Jiro, in 1955, one year after its founding, and remained an active member until 1972, when the group was dissolved.

The Shiraga Kazuo Memorial Room opened inside the Amagasaki Cultural Center on November 1, 2013, to honor the achievements of the internationally acclaimed artist, who hailed from Amagasaki, and to introduce his works to a wide audience. It archives, studies, and exhibits materials related to Shiraga, including approximately 140 of his oil paintings, watercolors, prints, and other works owned by the city as well as roughly 4,000 drawings, sketchbooks, publications, photographs, art supplies, and other items donated or entrusted by Shiraga’s family following his death.

Hirai Shoichi was affiliated with the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, National Art Center, Tokyo, and National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, before becoming a professor at Kansai University in 2018. His areas of research are modern and contemporary art history and the Gutai Art Group.