田中竜児, Ryuji Tanaka

Tanaka was born in 1927 with the first name Susumu, in Hyogo Prefecture which is now part of the core city Akashi. From 1944, he studied at the Kyoto Municipal Special School of Painting, where Kazuo Shiraga studied as well. In 1948, the year of his graduation, he founded Pan-real, together with a group of artists who called themselves Pan-real Art Association the following year. In 1952, the year after he left the group, Tanaka began working as a teacher in art and music education, and a few years later he changed his first name to Ryuji. In the 1960s, he became a member of the Shin Bijutu Kyokai (New Art Association), the Ashiya City Art Association and the Gutai Art Association (until 1967). Several murals were made by him at that time in Osaka and Matsue. Today his work is part of several large collections in Japan, including the Osaka City Museum of Modern Art, the Miyagi Museum of Art and the Nofukuji Temple, as well as TATE Modern in London. Tanaka participated in a large number of solo, group and invitational exhibitions. His interest continued to grow after his death in 2014, among other things through the inclusion of his work in the exhibition INTUITION in Venice in 2017. Axel Vervoordt Gallery is working on a second volume of the painter’s monograph after publishing the first in 2016.