NAKANISHI NATSUYUKI

• NAKANISHI NATSUYUKI was one of the leading painters of the postwar Japanese avant-garde. After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts, he co-founded the Hi Red Center with Jiro Takamatsu and Genpei Akasegawa in 1963, developing experimental actions and objects staged in urban spaces. He also collaborated with butoh artists such as Tatsumi Hijikata, producing stage designs and installations beyond the field of painting. From the late 1960s onward, he returned to painting in earnest, developing series including Kick the Stone at the Summit, Tangent Arc, and Purple-Violet. Through distinctive brushwork, colours such as white, purple, and yellow-green, and the relationships between curved lines and areas of colour, he explored the structure of painting and the space in which it comes into being. From the 1990s onward, he continued to investigate the possibilities of painting through an approach grounded in physical acts of creation and an awareness of space.

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  • KANO MITSUO

    KANO MITSUO was born in Tokyo in 1933. He began experimenting with copperplate printmaking on his own after accidentally coming across a book on printmaking techniques, starting in the mid-1950s. He began exhibiting his works from that time. In the 1960s, he participated in numerous international exhibitions such as the Ljubljana International Print Biennial and the Tokyo International Print Biennial, receiving high praise early on.