Attributed to Waichi TSUTAKA

Exhibited by Joost van den Bergh

Material Ink on paper

Dimensions 86.5 × 93.5 cm

Place of Creation Japan

Status Vetted

About the Work

The poet and painter Tsutaka Waichi was born in Osaka. In his late twenties he became a member of the Surrealist poetry circle Kobe Shijin (Kobe Poet), but the group soon came into conflict with the authorities on politcal grounds, and Tsutaka turned instead to painting, just before World War II broke out and he was drafted to serve in Manchuria. The war served as his subject matter once he returned to Japan, but by the 1950s he was producing abstract work incorporating simple shapes and bold colours.

Tsutaka also belonged to several artists’ groups, including Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai (Contemporary Art Discussion Group) – or Genbi – which had been established to encourage interdisciplinary exchange between artists and scholars living in the Kansai region.

Tsutaka continued to exhibit at various group and solo shows, culminating in Tsutaka Waichi at Osaka’s National Museum of Art in 1993, which included 130 of his works. He died in the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995, aged 84.

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