Shozo Shimamoto
, Osaka, Japan — , Osaka, Japan
During the 1950s and 60s, Shozo Shimamoto explored the boundaries of painting by throwing bottles onto large-scale canvasses, by applying layers of thick matter on them, and by perforating the paper canvas, giving way to his Ana (Holes) series.
The hole works that he began prior to his participation and membership in the influential Japanese avant grade group, Gutai Art Association, are especially vital. At approximately the same time, the Italian artist Lucio Fontana began making holes in the picture plane as a way to restore the plane to three dimensions or a space. Shimamoto conceived his painting as a hole, by breaking through layers of glued newspaper.
About Shozo Shimamoto
Some years later, right after the encounter with the French art critic Michel Tapié and the artist’s new interest in art informel, Shimamoto made a few 'informel' works. They became Shimamoto’s most transitional works, resulting in a Tapié-inspired painting style focusing on the matter and the rough surface, while still referring back to the early hole (Ana) experiments with punched newspapers.
Embody the fact that our spirit is free. The thing that is most important to us is that contemporary art acts as a free space providing maximum release for people to survive the trying conditions of contemporary life. It is our deep-seated belief that creativity in a free space will truly contribute to the development of the human race
I think that in the first place one should liberate the paint from the brush. Paint cannot be liberated until the brush has been broken up and thrown away and distance has been gained from it. Paint does not start to live until it is liberated from the brush.