Tetsumi Kudo

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Tetsumi Kudо̄ (工藤哲巳)
Tetsumi Kudo bijutsu-techo kao at the beginning of the 1960s.jpg
Tetsumi Kudо̄ at the beginning of the 1960s
Born(1935-02-23)February 23, 1935
Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
DiedNovember 12, 1990(1990-11-12) (aged 55)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
EducationTokyo University of the Arts
Known forSculpture, Painter
MovementAbstract expressionism

Tetsumi Kudо̄ (工藤哲巳, Kudо̄ Tetsumi) (23 February 1935 – 12 November 1990), was a Japanese artist associated with the Neo-Dada tradition.[1]

Early life and education[]

Tetsumi Kudо̄ was born in 1935 in Osaka, Japan. The son of two art teachers, he was evacuated as a child to Aomori prefecture, where he spent the final years of World War II.[2] Kudо̄ later moved to Tokyo and graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts in 1958.[2] In 1957, while still in university, Kudо̄ began exhibiting his work at the freewheeling and non-ideological Yomiuri Indépendant Exhibition and held his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Blanche, Tokyo.

Career[]

In 1960, Kudо̄ participated in the massive Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. In the midst of the protests, he was invited to give a speech to the Young Japan Society (Wakai Nihon no Kai), a group of artists, writers, and composers who had banded together to take part in protest activities against the treaty.[3] Instead of giving a lengthy speech, Kudо̄ got up on stage and said only the words "Now there is nothing left but action" (Ima ya akushon aru nomi desu) before leaving the stage, indicating his belief that the time for speeches had passed.[4] After the protests failed to stop the passage of the treaty, leading to an overwhelming sense of disappointment and failure on the part of many participants, Kudо̄ began working on a long-running series of installations and happenings, collectively entitled The Philosophy of Impotence (インポ哲学, Impo tetsugaku), in which he would fill entire rooms with large numbers of limp, dangling black penis-like objects of various sizes and lengths, conveying a theme of emasculation and powerlessness.[5] Kudо̄ began these installations in Tokyo and would later continued them in Paris.

In 1962, Kudо̄ was awarded the Grand Prize and a travel grant to Paris through his participation in the 1962 Second International Young Artists Exhibition in Tokyo. Kudо̄ would remain in Paris for the next 25 years.[2] His work made international appearances at the (1976), and the Biennial São Paulo (1977, awarded a special mention) while also appearing frequently in museums and galleries throughout Japan and France, with a growing recognition in the Netherlands. Notable museum solo exhibitions include the National Museum of Art, Osaka (1994), a joint-exhibition and catalogue organized by the Van Reekum Museum and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1991), as well as the Hirosaki City Museum, Aomori (1986). In the year before his death, Galerie du Génie and FIAC dedicated a retrospective and catalogue to Kudо̄’s work. His work was most recently in a solo exhibition organized by La Maison Rouge and the Fondation Antoine de Galbert in Paris, accompanied by a catalogue written by Anne Tronche. His work can also be found in the collections of the Musée Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the National Museum of Art, Osaka.

Death and posthumous recognition[]

Tetsumi Kudо̄ died of cancer on November 12, 1990 in Tokyo, Japan.[6]

Kudо̄’s work was posthumously appraised for U.S. audiences at the Guggenheim’s 1994 exhibition Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky, and again in 1998 with its inclusion in a group exhibition at the MOCA LA Out of Action: Between performance and the Object, 1949-1979, before receiving a solo exhibition with Tetsumi Kudo: Garden of Metamorphosis at the Walker Art Center in 2008.

Public collections[]

Entrance to exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (2020)
  • Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori
  • Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
  • Chiba City Art Museum, Chiba City
  • Kurashi City Art Museum, Kurashi City
  • Musée d’Art Contemperain de Marseilles, Marseilles
  • Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal
  • Musée Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
  • Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna,
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • National Museum of Art, Osaka
  • Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent
  • Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
  • Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

References[]

  1. ^ Smith, Roberta (4 July 2008). "Tetsumi Kudo". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mitsuda, Yuri (2012). "Trauma and Deliverance: Portraits of Avant-Garde Artists in Japan, 1955-1970". In Chong, Doryun (ed.). Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-87070-834-3.
  3. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 177, 180. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  4. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  5. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  6. ^ Tetsumi Kudo: Garden of Metamorphosis Archived 2008-12-07 at the Wayback Machine, calendar.walkerart.org, retrieved 23 June 2009.
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