Sadaharu Horio, Freezing Moments in Time

Sadaharu Horio (Kobe, 1939-2018)
Freezing Moments in Time
Kanaal, Patio Gallery 
Opening February 3, 2024

Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to present a new exhibition by Japanese artist Sadaharu Horio (1939-2018). It's the gallery’s sixth solo exhibition by the former Gutai artist and features works on paper from his last performances at Kanaal in June 2018.

This exhibition presents a series of works on paper created during Horio's last performances at Kanaal, a few months before the artist's sudden passing in November 2018. He created these works with his incomparable energy on traditional Echizen Washi paper. This type of paper is manufactured according to time-honored, traditional techniques and has been used by many Western artists who’ve praised its unique and strong qualities. The exhibition reveals some of these artworks to the public for the first time. The distinct beauty, unfaltering energy, and swift brushwork evident in these works represent artistic expression performed without hesitation. Waking up to the fact that “art”, the “everyday,” the “self”, and the “world” are inalienable seemed like the greatest possible achievements in life’s limited span.

During live performances, he challenged his audience's thoughts on art. In the “Kissing Paintings”, as presented in the smaller exhibition room within the Patio Gallery, he prepared one “mother canvas” by arbitrarily squeezing oil paint directly from the tubes and then superposing a dry, blank canvas on top of it, leaving an imprint of the fresh paint splatters. The colours were randomly chosen, and the kissing of the canvases seemed like a fun and lively act comparable to children playing, in which Horio paid a great interest. Like Picasso, Horio often said that to achieve the same level of spontaneity, an artist’s psyche must be able to revert to a truly child-like state of wonder—without preconceptions, completely free of fear, unburdened by the ego, and ready to create with ordinary things. He created the small “dripping paintings” and “kiss, paintings” during previous similar performances in Japan.

Another live performance titled, “Kolon-kolon” included the act of pushing several small stones with a brush on paper. He prepared four pieces of paper and taped them together on the floor resulting in a vivid, uncontrolled dance of the paint. Later that day, he decided to separate them again. Signing and dating the works was important. For him, it implied his way of freezing the moment. Horio called these performances Atarimae-no-koto, or “A matter of course”.

A pioneer in modern Kobe performance art with a significant influence on Japan's contemporary art scene, Horio worked constantly, often in collaboration with his friends, the so-called “Kuki-team”, which led to an impressive body of performative work. At the start of his career, Horio joined the Gutai Art Association in 1966 as part of the group’s third-generation members. Throughout his life and work, Horio remained faithful to Gutai’s pioneering, avant-garde spirit, even long after the group disbanded in 1972. Gutai artists had an absolute belief in originality and strived to do what had never been done before, which led to experimental and innovative work.

Horio’s practice focussed on freezing moments in time—in Japanese, this is called ichi-go, ichi-e—referring to the uniqueness of the moment. Each moment is singular and cannot be copied or reproduced. He staged about a hundred exhibitions and presentations per year, which emphasised the idea that exhibiting and performing was an extension of his everyday life. For Horio, art-making had unlimited potential. He said: “Everything ordinary or unaffected is basically a performance.”

In the last decade of his life, especially after his appearance at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice in 2011, Horio had several performances in major museums and institutions, such Guggenheim, NY (May 2013) Lille, France (March 2014), Göttland, Sweden (June 2014), Braunschweig, Germany (June 2016), BOZAR Brussels (October 2016).

The exhibition, Freezing Moments in Time, shows a variety of works on paper created with unbridled enthusiasm and boundless energy which is as inspiring today as when the Gutai group was first founded.