Yumiko Chiba Associates is delighted to present a new exhibition devoted to the work of Masakazu Horiuti (1911–2001), a significant artist who helped to establish the concept of abstract sculpture in Japan, and whose long career serves as a link between modern and contemporary sculptural history.

Debuting as a sculptor in the 1920s, after the war Horiuti took his cue from concrete art's view of art as a tool directly shaping the spirit, and devoted himself entirely to the abstract, exploring geometric morphology amid an interrogation of the principles of form. Known as the sculptor without a studio, he once declared that his own art really lay in the making of the maquettes used to trial different forms, a stance underpinned by his belief that art is not a thing but an action of the consciousness. This was in turn grounded in the abstract art and linguistic studies he pursued to a deepening degree during wartime. Horiuti gathered into himself the paradox of sculpture—the way it tries to turn the idea of beauty into unshakeable reality—and located sculpture within an intellectual flirtation with form that embraced literature and philosophy. The trajectory of these form-based meditations earned Horiuti a unique place in postwar Japanese art history.

Alongside precious archive material offering insight into the practicalities of Horiuti's art-making, and the thinking behind it, this exhibition will present sculptures and drawings from the artist's figurative pieces of the 1940s, to the 1950s when he turned toward the abstract, and the years from the 1970s to the 1990s when he explored the use of geometric forms to hypostatize ideas of pellucid simplicity.

When: May.12(Fri) to Jun.8(Thu) 12:00 ~ 19:00
Closed on Sundays, Mondays, and national holidays

Admission fee : Free

http://ycassociates.co.jp/exhibitions/2023/05/11/1719/