Art in action: Kazuo Shiraga. (Looking & Learning).

"Technique will change to free and wild action, and it ignites my passion. Passion turns into action, and it fills my flaming heart."

--Kazuo Shiraga

About the Artist

Kazuo Shiraga was born in Japan in 1924, and reached adulthood in the aftermath of World War II. He saw Japan's old ways of doing things disappear as a result of its defeat in the war. Trained in traditional Japanese painting at the Kyoto City Specialist School of the Arts, he soon began to experiment with Western styles.

In 1952, he joined other local artists in forming the Zero-kai group, which held the belief that every work of art begins from nothing. He later became a member of the Gutai Art Association, an important avant-garde movement established in 1954 in Japan that is not very well known in the United States. The group sought to create a new art "never known until now." Gutai, which means "embodiment," had similarities to the Action Painting of New York in the 1950s, but is uniquely influenced by its own time and place--postwar Japan.

Coming out of that country's surrender in World War II, Gutai practitioners desired an art free of social criticism or political implication. Their artistic processes combined action and performance with painting. Unlike Happenings in Europe and America--which were not to emerge for another two years--Gutai events were meant to result in the creation of sculptures and paintings

About the Art

During the 1st Gutai art exhibition in 1955, Kazuo Shiraga dove into a pile of mud and wrestled, kicked, and thrashed the clay mound to create an artwork sculpted by physical action. In this painting, Shiraga used his body as a tool--this time a large paintbrush. Swinging from a hanging rope, he used his bare feet to apply paint onto a canvas on the floor. The finished work depicts his random spins, swirls, and slips.

Discussion Questions

How does Shiraga's method reflect a rejection of the old ways of painting?

What was happening in Japan during the 1950s when this artwork was created? In what ways is the social climate of the times reflected in this work?

Shiraga used sweeping gestures to create a sense of movement. What does the quote by the artist tell you about his work?

Classroom Extensions

During this time, several of Shiraga's contemporaries were experimenting with ways to extend traditional Japanese calligraphy as a form of Expressionist painting. Shod, the Japanese word for calligraphy, is an artistic, stylized handwriting made with a special brush or pen and ink on paper. Though characters or letterforms are created with precise movements, they often contain decorative flourishes. In this example, a bamboo brush was used to write the artist's name in a block-script style called kaisho. The characters are drawn from top to bottom, with the family name--Shiraga--listed first, which is the Japanese custom when formally addressing someone.

In what ways are Shiraga's painting and his painting style similar to Japanese calligraphy? In what ways are they different?

Demonstrate writing with a brush or calligraphy pen if students are unfamiliar with the technique.

View examples of Japanese calligraphy. Invite a speaker from the Japanese American Society to discuss the history and practice of calligraphy in Japanese culture.

On the Web

The ArtsConnectEd website at www.artsconnected.org puts you and your students in touch with images, information, and educational resources from the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

From September through May, Looking and Learning will include an artwork that can be found on ArtsConnectEd. In addition, every month you will learn more about this exciting website.

Visit www.artsconnected.org to download the Teacher's Guide to ArtsConnectEd. From the homepage go to the "For Your Classroom" section. Click on the Teacher's Guide icon to download the guide.

Classroom Activities

* Cut ribbons of different colors. (Ribbons can be made from discarded clothing or from paper streamers.) Attach to sticks. Move with the ribbons, swinging, waving, and pulling them. Videotape the movement of the colored ribbons without showing any portions of the body or hands.

* While listening to a musical beat, paint with an oversized brush such as a hairbrush or broom. Do the same with a regular-sized brush. How did brush size affect body movements while painting?

* If these tools are not available, use a large eraser to make gestures on the chalkboard. Do the same with a piece of chalk. Compare the two. When possible, take pictures of students' gestures and motion. Explore the element of chance in this kind of art-making.

Susan Rotilie is the associate director of School/Tours/Family Programs at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [e-mail].