SADAMASA MOTONAGA – TAASA Review December 2020

Reuben Keehan The paintings E 1978 is an excellent example of the mature practice of celebrated Gutai artist Sadamasa Motonaga.

Gutai � variously translated as concrete, material or embodied � remains arguably the best known of the Japanese avant-gardes that flourished in the postwar period, a time of great creative ferment amid the social and cultural transformations of reconstruction.

Founded in 1954, the Gutai Art Association revolved around the senior figure Jiro Yoshihara (1905 � 1972), who acted as mentor urging constant innovation from a collective of younger artists based in Kansai, the heavily populated region around Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...