Born 1905, Osaka, Japan, died 1972

           Yoshihara was founder and leader of the innovative Japanese Gutai Art Association (1954).  His main ambition was to revolutionise the traditional arts in a modernist spirit and following his advice, “do not imitate others, and make what nobody knows”, Gutai artists explored the act of creation, initiating a change in material and conceptual identities. The Gutai exhibited unprecedented works not only in galleries but also outdoors and on the stage and actively searched for new ways of expression. Internationally ambitious, in 1957 the group began a decade-long collaboration with the French critic Michel Tapié and in 1966 it was acknowledged by American artist Allan Kaprow as one of the pioneers of Happenings in his book Assemblages, Environments and Happenings.

“Gutai art does not change the material but brings it to life. Gutai art does not falsify the material.  In Gutai art the human spirit and the material reach out their hands to each other…” Jiro Yoshihara (1905-72)