- 1044
Tanaka Atsuko
Estimate
6,000,000 - 8,000,000 HKD
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Description
- Tanaka Atsuko
- Work
- synthetic polymer paint on canvas
signed in English and dated 1968 on the reverse, framed
Provenance
Private Asian Collection
Exhibited
Japan, Osaka, Akao Gallery, Atsuko Tanaka, 26 - 31 August 1968
Philippine, Manila, Ayala Museum, A Taste of Gutai, Lito and Kim Camacho Collection, 5 February - 10 April 2016
Philippine, Manila, Ayala Museum, A Taste of Gutai, Lito and Kim Camacho Collection, 5 February - 10 April 2016
Condition
This work is in good and stable condition after restoration. Craquelures are visible throughout which is in line with the normal behavior of ageing enamel paint. The restorer used pigments, gesso and varnish to restore the losses. Previous in-paintings have been removed and the painting is stabilized and centered.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Blazing Tableaux of Life
Tanaka Atsuko
Tanaka became, in her dress, a kind of twinkling building on the horizon, and a symbol of the modern Asian city. – Mark Stevens1
At the 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition in Tokyo in 1956, five years before American Minimalist Dan Flavin created his first fluorescent sculpture, avant-garde seamstress turned artist Tanaka Atsuko stunned audiences by appearing on stage in a high-voltage, coruscatingly resplendent Electric Dress. Composed of a great mass of wires connecting two hundred bulbs and tubes that blinked and flashed in dazzling neon colors, the elaborate dress-contraption heaved with intense heat and energy, imprinting a blazing pattern of circles on audience’s retinas. The iconic performance immortalized itself in art history, firmly establishing Tanaka’s reputation among the greatest artists of her generation and earning her a laudatory mention in renowned French critic Michel Tapié’s landmark piece “A Mental Reckoning of My First Trip to Japan” in 1957: “I have a deep respect for the whole group [Gutai] as a group, but I would like to name four artists who should appear alongside the most established international figures: Shiraga Kazuo, Shimamoto Shozo, Yoshihara Jiro, and Tanaka Atsuko”.2
The pivotal performance catalysed Tanaka’s post-1957 vocabulary of omnipresent circles and lines on canvas: a striking aesthetic exemplified by Work (Lot 1044). Hailing from Tanaka’s glorious 1960s era of escalating international acclaim, during which her works were purchased by the likes of distinguished Western collectors such as Anthony Denney and Roland A. Gibson as well as American painter Sam Francis, the current lot is outstanding for its riveting range of brilliant color, layered three-dimensionality and compelling immediacy: testament to Tanaka’s use of quick-drying synthetic enamel paint. Works of such commanding presence from Tanaka’s early 1960s circle paintings are extremely rare to come by in the market, with similar paintings from this early decade currently belonging to eminent museum collections such as that of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 1968, the same year the current lot was created, yet another iconic milestone performance by Tanaka was documented in the film Round on Sand directed by Fukuzawa Hiroshi. In an elaborate improvised dance along the length of a beach, Tanaka engraved a vast array of interlocking circles and lines in the sand. Viewed from above, the large drawing in nature evokes sublime traces of movement that swirl and loop towards infinity, evoking the cosmic mystery of the ancient Nasca lines of Peru. The circular bodily motions employed by Tanaka in the performance echoes Stage Clothes (1956), an early Gutai performance in which Tanaka unravelled layer upon layer of connected trains of fabric from her body in a twirling spiral movement. In both Round on Sand and Stage Clothes, as well as in Electric Dress, Tanaka was “drawing” or “painting” with her entire body, inserting her corporeal being into the very axis of the production of shape, line and color.
Such a revolutionary method gave birth to the notion that abstract painting could be indexical to the figure,3 a radical concept that provided a highly conceptual challenge to the prevalent gestural automatism of her generation in Informel and Abstract Expressionism in both the East and the West.4 At the same time, by uniting art and technology, Tanaka responded theoretically and aesthetically to the brisk economic expansion and exhilarating technological development experienced by Japan’s rapidly industrializing post-Hiroshima urban life. The current lot was one of three circle paintings exhibited at Tanaka’s solo exhibition at Akao Gallery, Osaka in 1968: with its jostling, pulsating circles and fluidly twisting lines, Untitled embodies post-war Japan’s throbbing heartbeat and flashing neon aesthetic, constituting a potent symphony celebrating the all-encompassing sublimity of life, resilience, contemporaneity and interconnectivity.
1 Mark Stevens, "Everything is Illuminated", NY Magazine, October 4, 2004
2 Michel Tapié, “A Mental Reckoning of My First Trip to Japan”, 1957
3 Vivian Ziherl, “Atsuko Tanaka: The Art of Connecting”, LEAP 15, June 2012
4 Ming Tiampo, “Electrifying Painting”, in Electrifying Art: Atsuko Tanaka, 1954-1968, Hemlock Printers, Vancouver, 2004, pg. 64
Tanaka Atsuko
Tanaka became, in her dress, a kind of twinkling building on the horizon, and a symbol of the modern Asian city. – Mark Stevens1
At the 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition in Tokyo in 1956, five years before American Minimalist Dan Flavin created his first fluorescent sculpture, avant-garde seamstress turned artist Tanaka Atsuko stunned audiences by appearing on stage in a high-voltage, coruscatingly resplendent Electric Dress. Composed of a great mass of wires connecting two hundred bulbs and tubes that blinked and flashed in dazzling neon colors, the elaborate dress-contraption heaved with intense heat and energy, imprinting a blazing pattern of circles on audience’s retinas. The iconic performance immortalized itself in art history, firmly establishing Tanaka’s reputation among the greatest artists of her generation and earning her a laudatory mention in renowned French critic Michel Tapié’s landmark piece “A Mental Reckoning of My First Trip to Japan” in 1957: “I have a deep respect for the whole group [Gutai] as a group, but I would like to name four artists who should appear alongside the most established international figures: Shiraga Kazuo, Shimamoto Shozo, Yoshihara Jiro, and Tanaka Atsuko”.2
The pivotal performance catalysed Tanaka’s post-1957 vocabulary of omnipresent circles and lines on canvas: a striking aesthetic exemplified by Work (Lot 1044). Hailing from Tanaka’s glorious 1960s era of escalating international acclaim, during which her works were purchased by the likes of distinguished Western collectors such as Anthony Denney and Roland A. Gibson as well as American painter Sam Francis, the current lot is outstanding for its riveting range of brilliant color, layered three-dimensionality and compelling immediacy: testament to Tanaka’s use of quick-drying synthetic enamel paint. Works of such commanding presence from Tanaka’s early 1960s circle paintings are extremely rare to come by in the market, with similar paintings from this early decade currently belonging to eminent museum collections such as that of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 1968, the same year the current lot was created, yet another iconic milestone performance by Tanaka was documented in the film Round on Sand directed by Fukuzawa Hiroshi. In an elaborate improvised dance along the length of a beach, Tanaka engraved a vast array of interlocking circles and lines in the sand. Viewed from above, the large drawing in nature evokes sublime traces of movement that swirl and loop towards infinity, evoking the cosmic mystery of the ancient Nasca lines of Peru. The circular bodily motions employed by Tanaka in the performance echoes Stage Clothes (1956), an early Gutai performance in which Tanaka unravelled layer upon layer of connected trains of fabric from her body in a twirling spiral movement. In both Round on Sand and Stage Clothes, as well as in Electric Dress, Tanaka was “drawing” or “painting” with her entire body, inserting her corporeal being into the very axis of the production of shape, line and color.
Such a revolutionary method gave birth to the notion that abstract painting could be indexical to the figure,3 a radical concept that provided a highly conceptual challenge to the prevalent gestural automatism of her generation in Informel and Abstract Expressionism in both the East and the West.4 At the same time, by uniting art and technology, Tanaka responded theoretically and aesthetically to the brisk economic expansion and exhilarating technological development experienced by Japan’s rapidly industrializing post-Hiroshima urban life. The current lot was one of three circle paintings exhibited at Tanaka’s solo exhibition at Akao Gallery, Osaka in 1968: with its jostling, pulsating circles and fluidly twisting lines, Untitled embodies post-war Japan’s throbbing heartbeat and flashing neon aesthetic, constituting a potent symphony celebrating the all-encompassing sublimity of life, resilience, contemporaneity and interconnectivity.
1 Mark Stevens, "Everything is Illuminated", NY Magazine, October 4, 2004
2 Michel Tapié, “A Mental Reckoning of My First Trip to Japan”, 1957
3 Vivian Ziherl, “Atsuko Tanaka: The Art of Connecting”, LEAP 15, June 2012
4 Ming Tiampo, “Electrifying Painting”, in Electrifying Art: Atsuko Tanaka, 1954-1968, Hemlock Printers, Vancouver, 2004, pg. 64