Tadaaki Kuwayama

Japanese, 1932 - 2023

The artist Tadaaki Kuwayama is considered icon of the neo-avant-garde who is regarded as one of the progenitors of minimal art. Before he showed at Willem Baars Projects, his work was last shown in Amsterdam in 1966, at the groundbreaking exhibition New Shapes of Color. This event, initiated by Edy de Wilde and realised by Wim Beeren, was the first museum exhibition of colour field painting and minimal art in the Netherlands. The work of Tadaaki Kuwayama and fellow minimalists Frank Stella and Donald Judd was among the most radical in the exhibition. Their impersonal and systematic art challenged what they saw as the classic aesthetic attitude. For this generation of artists, art as testimony to a unique process of genius was an outmoded notion. The wave of democratisation that occurred in the 1960s meshed seamlessly with their revolutionary idea that a work of art could be endlessly reproduced. This reality defines Kuwayama’s work.

In the recent work, Kuwayama demonstrates the continuing relevance of his fundamental examination of colour, material and spatiality. He has recently begun experimenting with unusual materials like bakelite and titanium, further exploring and expressing the idea of infinity and existence.

Kuwayama is concerned not with specific properties of colour or material, but with a sense of infinity and incomprehensibility. Is it about the objects themselves, or about the perception of presence and spatiality they inspire? They appear cool and detached because our instinct is to look in the ‘classic’ way. But these objects invite the viewer to let go. The purity of conception and execution not only makes this art timeless, but also eternally relevant.

Solo exhibitons include: Green Gallery, New York, USA (1965); Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (1967); Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland (1967); Museum Folkwang, Essen, West Germany (1974); Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (1976); Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany (1997) Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan (2010); and National Museum of Art, Osaka (2011).

Group exhibitions include Systemic Painting, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (1966); New Shapes of Color, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1966); Constructivism and the Geometric Tradition, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA (1979); The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2009).

Download CV (updated March 2017)

Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow and blue

Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow and blue

Metallic paint on bakelite, 1996 - 2013, 240 x 18 x 5 cm, 16 pieces

Artworks

Tadaaki Kuwayama, Untitled, 1966

Tadaaki Kuwayama, Untitled, 1966

acrylic on canvas with chrome strips
114 × 114 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, red, blue, 1962

Tadaaki Kuwayama, red, blue, 1962

acrylic, pigment on canvas
53.30 x 48.50 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow, red, 1962

Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow, red, 1962

acrylic, pigment on canvas
82.50 x 56.00 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, beige, 1966

Tadaaki Kuwayama, beige, 1966

acrylic on canvas with chrome strips
109.30 x 109.30 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, blue, 1966

Tadaaki Kuwayama, blue, 1966

acrylic on canvas with chrome strips
101.00 x 101.00 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow, white & yellow, 1969

Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow, white & yellow, 1969

acrylic on canvas with chrome strips
117.20 x 117.80 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, metallic colors, 4 panels, 1971

Tadaaki Kuwayama, metallic colors, 4 panels, 1971

acrylic on canvas
61 x 184 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, untitled (three bands), 1967

Tadaaki Kuwayama, untitled (three bands), 1967

acrylic on canvas with chrome strips
26 x 77.8 cm
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow and blue

Tadaaki Kuwayama, yellow and blue

Metallic paint on bakelite, 1996 - 2013, 240 x 18 x 5 cm, 16 pieces
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, Titanium (yellow & pink)

Tadaaki Kuwayama, Titanium (yellow & pink)

2013, 20 x 20 x 5 cm (6 pieces)
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Tadaaki Kuwayama, Titanium (yellow and pink)

Tadaaki Kuwayama, Titanium (yellow and pink)

2013, 20 x 20 x 5 cm (6 pieces)
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Tadaaki Kuwayama

Tadaaki Kuwayama

installation view - Recent Works
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