Jiro Takamatsu (Japanese, 1936-1998) Untitled

Description:

Jiro Takamatsu (Japanese, 1936-1998)

Untitled [Key in Shadow]
Signed and dated "JIRO TAKAMATSU 1966" on the reverse, identified on labels from
Tokyo Gallery, and Staempfli Gallery, Inc., New York, New York, affixed to the reverse.
Oil and metal (hook) on board, 8 5/8 x 6 1/4 in. (22 x 16 cm),unframed.
Condition: Surface grime.

Provenance: From the collection of Dr. Frank Stanton.

N.B. Takamatsu was a founding member of the Hi Red Center, a group of three artists who were a part of Tokyo's Fluxus movement in the early 1960s and staged "happenings" at galleries and museums. (1) Takamatsu was influenced by Sartrean existentialism, and his works investigate the ontology and epistemology of time, space, and existence.

The present work is from his Shadow Series (1965-1974),where he examined the relationship between objects in the world and their traces (via imagined cast shadows),in an attempt to locate the real subject of the artwork. The year Takamatsu began this series, he wrote of the nature of absence, "…Since there can be no "absence" without "existence," our task is to experiment in order to see how far we may go from the realm of "existence." (2)

1. Munroe, Alexandra, Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994, p. 395.
2. Ibid., 374.

Estimate $4,000-6,000

Surface grime, primarily to l.r. quadrant. May benefit from a cleaning.

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