COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Guggenheim Museum(New York), The National Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Hyogo, Japan), etc.
SHUJI MUKAI
SHUJI MUKAI
In 1959, Shuji Mukai met Jiro Yoshihara, founder of the Gutai Art Association. Yoshihara highly appreciated Mukai's talent, and he became the group's youngest member in 1961. Mukai's work is characterised by the inventive use of various symbols that he has created, which fill both canvases and spaces. At times, he even utilises his own body as a canvas. Yoshihara praised his works, saying, "While they appear cool at first glance, there is a furious energy lurking within them."
In 1964, the Museum of Modern Art New York (MoMA) presented Mukai's works as part of the New Japanese Painting and Sculpture exhibition, which toured the United States until 1967. The curator William S. Lieberman bought one of Mukai's works to add to the MoMA's collection. In 1966, Mukai presented his first installation work in Osaka, filling the entire interior surface of a jazz cafe called 'Check’ with his inventive symbols.
For the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's 2013 Gutai retrospective titled Gutai: Splendid Playground, Mukai recreated his renowned Symbol Room from the 8th Gutai Art Exhibition and covered every surface of the museum's elevator and restroom with millions of symbols. In 2017, Mukai contributed installation works to the renovation of Louis Vuitton's SOHO boutique in New York City (curated by architect Peter Marino). In addition, he has received high acclaim invarious fields.
ARTWORKS
NEWS
ARTICLES
MAJOR EXHIBITIONS, COLLECTIONS
IMAGES
BIOGRAPHY
- 1940
- Born in Kobe
- 1959
- Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, ‘8th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Kyoto
- 1961
- International Center of Aesthetic Research, ‘The Continuité et Avant-garde au Japon’, Turin, Italy
Palazzo del Centro del Mobile, ‘XII Premio Lissone internazionale per la pittura’, Lissone, Italy - 1962
- Takashimaya Department Store, ‘11th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Osaka
Galerie Stadler, ‘Structures répétitives’, Paris, France
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, ‘Strutture e Stile’, Turin, Italy
Sankei Hall, ‘Don't Worry, the Moon Won't Fall Down: Gutai Art and Morita Modern Dance’, Osaka, Japan - 1963
- Städtsche Kunstgalerie, ‘Profile, Michel Tapié: Strukturen und Stile’, Bochum, Germany
Takashimaya Department Store, ‘12th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Tokyo
Takashimaya Department Store, ‘13th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Osaka - 1964
- Takashimaya Department Store, ‘14th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Osaka
National Museum of Modern Art, ‘Trends in Contemporary Paintings and Sculpture of Japan’, Kyoto
Centro de Artes Visuales Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, ‘Intuiciones y Realizaciones Formales’, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, ‘Today's Artists’, Yokohama, Japan - 1965
- Daiwa Gallery, ‘Five Gutai Artists in Kobe’, Kobe
Museum of Modern Art, ‘The New Japanese Painters and Sculptures’, New York
Gutai Pinacotheca, ‘15th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Osaka
Keio Department Store, ‘16th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Tokyo
Galerie Stadler, `Groupe Gutai’, Paris, France
Shinano Gallery, ‘The Method of Twenty Artists’, Osaka, Japan - 1966
- International Gallery Orez, ‘NUL
Art Exhibition (Nul Negentienhonderd zesenzestig)’, The Hague, Netherlands
Gutai Pinacotheca, ‘Three-Person exhibition: Shuji Mukai, Matsutani, Maekawa’, Osaka
Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Art Palais de Rumine, ‘2ème Salon International des Galeries Pilotes Lausanne’, Lausanne, Switzerland
Takashimaya Department Store, ‘17th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Yokohama
National Museum of Modern Art ‘New Generation's Contemporary Art’, Tokyo - 1967
- Experiment Studio, ‘Gutai Group Osaka Japan’, Rotterdam, Netherlands Heide Hildebrand Gallery, ‘Gutai Group Exhibition’, Klagenfurt, Austria Gutai Pinacotheca, ‘19th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Osaka
- 1968
- Sogo Department Store, ‘Espacio Contemporaneo 1968 Luz y Ambiente’, Kobe Gutai Pinacotheca, ‘20th Gutai Art Exhibition’, Osaka Miyazaki Kanko Hotel, ‘Contemporary Art Exhibition Only in the Night’, Miyazaki, Japan
- 1969
- Alleria d'Arte Cortina, ‘Spazi astratti. Dall'intuizione alla concettualizzazione’, Milan, Italy
- 1970
- Expo’70 Museum, Outdoor Section, ‘Garden on Garden’, Osaka
Midori Pavilion, ‘Exhibition at the entrance of Expo ’70 Midori Pavilion by the Gutai Group’, Osaka - 1976
- Osaka Prefectural Gallery, ‘Eighteen Years of Gutai Art’, Osaka
- 1979
- Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, ‘Jiro Yoshihara and Today's Aspects of Gutai’, Kobe, Japan
- 1985
- Ashiya Civic Center, ‘Jiro Yoshihara and "Gutai"’, Ashiya, Japan
National Museum of Art, ‘Action and Emotion, Paintings of the '50s, Informel, Gutai, Cobra’, Osaka
Museum of Modern Art, ‘Reconstructions: Avant-garde Art in Japan -1945 1965’, Oxford, Great Britain
Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, ‘Grupo Gutai: Pintura y Acción’, Madrid, Spain - 1986
- Centre Pompidou, ‘Japon des Avant-Gardes 1910-1970’, Paris, France
- 1991
- Institut Mathildenhöhe, ‘Gutai Japanische Avantgarde 1954-1965’, Darmstadt, Germany
- 1993
- Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, ‘Gutai II: 1959-1965’, Ashiya, Japan
Ehime Museum of Art, ‘Challenge of Art After the War: Jiro Yoshihara and the Gutai Group’, Matsuyama, Japan. - 2001
- Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, ‘Le Tribù dell'Arte’, Rome, Italy
- 2002
- Miyagi Museum of Art, ‘Artists of Gutai Art Association’, Sendai, Japan
- 2004
- Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, ‘GUTAI 1954-1972’, Kobe, Japan
- 2012
- National Art Center, ‘Gutai: The Spirit of an Era’, Tokyo
- 2013
- Guggenheim Museum, New York, `Splendid playground`, New York
- 2014
- Nariwa Museum, Okayama, Japan. Hyogo prefecture Museum
`Symbol Art`, Kobe, Japan
Karuizawa New Art Museum, Karuizawa, Japan - 2015
- Gallery Collection, Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong
- 2016
- Gutai: Selected Small Works, Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong
- 2018
- GUTAI JIN in Hong Kong, Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong
- 2019
- GUTAI JIN in Taipei, Whitestone Gallery, Taipei Neihu