Acrylic and silk-screen on paper

38.5 x 57 cm.15 1/8 x 22 1/2 in.

Signed ’s.m’ on the reverse

NOTE This work is accompanied by a certificated of authenticity issused by Shozo Shimamoto Association.

Shozo Shimamoto 1928 - 2013

A co-founder of the avantgarde ‘Gutai group’，ShozoShimamoto has been ever exploring the possibilities of international art development since after the war. During Japan’s recovery after the war，the concept of ‘destruction’ is closely tied to ‘rebirth’. As early as mid-1950s，ShozoShimamoto adopted a ‘destructive’ way of creation to present colours. In the secondOutdoor GutaiArt Exhibition in 1956，ShozoShimamoto debuted his ‘destructive art performance’ by shooting bottles of paint from self-made cannons，making paint crash and splash on canvas. This was the pioneer ‘performance art’ in the ‘Gutai’ art movement. His ‘throwing bottle to paint’ as an exploration in art attracted extensive attention worldwide，and was covered by well-known media and organisationsnumerous times，such as Life magazine in the USA and BBC in the UK.

The ShozoShimamoto piece being shown this time，‘Untitled’，was created in 2011. Its bottom layer，which is a silkscreened print collage，was created in the 1970s. The integration of elementsacross years and the clashes of different materials，including paper，silkscreened print，acrylic and other materials，have emphasised the importance of ‘materials’，which was advocated by the ‘Gutai’ art movement. The name ‘Gutai’ has shown the relationship between the form of creation and the materials used. As the Gutai Manifesto declared in 1956 claimed，Gutai’s aim was to reveal the ‘essence of matter’，so as to free the spirits and materials. The yellowish green in the painting appears in splashes，its form free yet delicate. In this piece of work，ShozoShimamoto expressed his rhapsodical？power without any reserve，and the piece is full of his ideas in art development and creation. ShozoShimamoto has his own unique opinionson the relationship between the paintbrush and colour. He believes ‘that the first thing to do is to free colour from the paintbrush. If in the process of creating the paintbrush isn’t cast aside，then there is no hope of emancipating the tones. When the painbrush is cast aside，colours become free’. His interpretation of colours can be associated to Chang Dai-Chien’s splash-ink（fig. 1）and Jackson Pollock’s drip painting in western abstract painting. In the ‘Jackson Pollock：A Centennial Retrospective’ exhibition organised by the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art，Nagoya in 2012，ShozoShimamoto was even invited to present a ‘bottle-crash’ performance for the opening of the show. While Pollock disengages entirely in order to achieve the ‘abstract’，dismissing all materiality or form，ShozoShimamoto was part of a group that was entirely founded upon materiality，stressing that ‘abstraction’ can be achieved only through concrete presentations.

Besides，this piece of work was featured in ShozoShimamoto’s solo exhibition organised by Whitestone Gallery，Tokyo in 2014，and a certificate of authenticity issued by ShozoShimamoto Association is included to ensure its genuineness. This piece of work is created across a period of time，its content detailed and rich，making it special and worthy of attention.

Price estimate:
HKD：220,000 - 320,000
USD：28,380 - 41,300

Auction Result:
HKD : 259,600