白发一雄

KAZUO SHIRAGA, HIS SUPPORTERS, AND RODOLPHE STADLER

Kazuo Shiraga’s artistic journey through Europe and its art market has been an interesting one. He could count on the support of quite a few important figures within the contemporary European art world that promoted and encouraged him and his oeuvre. One of them was prominent Spanish painter Antoni Tàpies. Their connection was based on mutual respect for each other’s work, and Tàpies even acquired one of Shiraga’s works in 1990. Out of his entire collection, it’s said that this painting was Tàpies’ favourite. For a solo exhibition at Galerie Stadler in 1992, Tapiès wrote a reflection on Shiraga, in which he praised the artist’s spirit and technique – feeling that the use of feet, a body part that is so often despised, to create art, was an act of utmost rebellion: “What, after all, could arouse more protest in the field of fine arts, be more of a provocation, than painting with one's feet?”

Another major figure regarding Shiraga’s recognition was Michel Tapié, an influential international French art critic and curator. He was a great fan of the Gutai Art Association, which he met for the first time in September 1957. He became a big supporter of their appreciation in Europe. Tapié stated that within the stimulating and creative climate of Gutai and their gatherings, Shiraga was among the most talented of the group. He invited Shiraga to participate in an Art Informel exhibition in France shortly after they met.

More importantly, it was Michel Tapié who introduced Gutai to Rodolphe Stadler, who soon after became an important contact and supporter as well. Stadler showed Shiraga for the first time in a Gutai group show titled Métamorphismes in November 1959. In 1962, he invited Shiraga to establish his first solo show outside of Japan. Since then, Shiraga’s work was shown regularly in Paris at Galerie Stadler. As Stadler said: “My role was not to exhibit painters who had already proved themselves. I saw myself even less in the role of impresario for the better known. It may be (overly) conceited, but I like to discover things for myself and introduce them, even if it takes time.” The gallerist was (together with Annely Juda Gallery in London, and Galerie Georg Nothelfer in Berlin) one of the few European art dealers who exhibited Shiraga during his lifetime. Stadler and Shiraga continued to work together for almost forty years, up until the gallery’s closure in 1992.

Axel Vervoordt Gallery greatly values the importance of the prolonged cooperation between Rodolphe Stadler and Kazuo Shiraga, and therefore frames the exhibition Kazuo Shiraga within this history. A publication that further explores both this valuable relation and Shiraga’s presence in Europe will be released in collaboration with Lévy Gorvy Gallery.

This exhibition is organised in collaboration with Lévy Gorvy Gallery at the same time of their Kazuo Shiraga exhibition in London. The two galleries co-published the first ever comprehensive English-language monograph on the artist in 2015, including essays by Koichi Kawasaki, John Rajchman, Ming Tiampo and Reiko Tomii.