Untitled, 1962. Acrylic on Japanese paper mounted on board, four panels, 82 7/8 x 68 7/8 inches (210.5 x 174.9 cm) overall. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,Gift of the artist and purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive Committee Members: Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian, Christina Baker, Janna Bullock, Rita Rovelli Caltagirone, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Harry David, Caryl Englander, Shirley Fiterman, Laurence Graff, Nicki Harris, Dakis Joannou, Rachel Lehmann, Linda Macklowe, Peter Norton, Katharina Otto-Bernstein, Tonino Perna, Inga Rubenstein, Simonetta Seragnoli, Cathie Shriro, Ginny Williams, and Elliot K. Wolk, and Sustaining Members: Linda Fischbach, Beatrice Habermann, and Cargill and Donna MacMillan  2008.49. © 1962 Tadaaki Kuwayama

Other Recent Acquisition Works

Previous

|

Next

Tadaaki Kuwayama left his native Japan to pursue a more reductive style of painting in New York in 1958, roughly at the same time as fellow Japanese artists Yayoi Kusama and Yoko Ono. Best known for his luminous, Minimalist aesthetic, Kuwayama often employed traditional materials in his early monochrome paintings. For Untitled (1962), the artist wrapped Japanese paper around board, then applied thin washes of titanium-white acrylic paint mixed with water, a technique used in traditional nihonga painting. The pristine, untouched surface—a prevailing aesthetic of Minimal painting—is here disrupted by the artist’s hand, visible in the texture and undulating movement of the Japanese paper across the work. Kuwayama had a keen interest in the characteristics of his materials, as he noted when discussing this work: “I was not trying to paint a painting, but trying to step out of painting.”¹

Lauren Hinkson

1. Tadaaki Kuwayama, e-mail interview with author, September 16, 2011.