January 3, 2013

Gutai Art Exhibit - San Francisco, CA


    "Sokena"
    collage w/ mixed media
    ©2012 Gary A. Bibb

Permanent Collection: Smithsonion Institution - Archives of American Art (gift of John Held)



Sokena is an artwork concerned with the actual creative act - the tearing, cutting, pasting, dripping, daubing and mark-making. Therefore, it is a documentation of that particular art-making event rather than an artwork which emphasizes visual aesthetic pleasantries. This fundamental Gutai principle has inspired and influenced generations of artists.


An historical exhibition survey commemorating Gutai, the groundbreaking Japanese avant-garde art movement (1954-1972), featuring original artworks from notable founding members along with new works by international contemporary artists who have been inspired by the Gutai principles.

San Francisco Art Institute
Walter and McBean Galleries
800 Chestnut St.
San Francisco, CA 94133 - USA
February 8 – March 30, 2013

Exhibit information link: sfai.edu

Founded in 1871, SFAI has been a magnet for adventurous artists and central to the development of many of the country’s most notable art movements. After World War II, the school became a nucleus for Abstract Expressionism, with faculty including Clyfford Still, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, David Park, Elmer Bischoff, and Clay Spohn. Although painting and sculpture were the dominant mediums for many years, photography had also been among the course offerings. In 1946, Ansel Adams and Minor White established the first fine art photography department in the U.S., with Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange among its instructors. By the early 1950s, San Francisco’s North Beach was the West Coast center of the Beat Movement, and music, poetry, and discourse were an intrinsic part of artists’ lives. A distinctly Californian modern art soon emerged that fused abstraction, figuration, narrative, and jazz. The CSAI faculty, which included Park, Bischoff, James Weeks, and Richard Diebenkorn were now the leaders of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. The institute's culture of exploration progressed during the 1960's and was at the forefront of recognizing an expanded vocabulary of art making that was a hybrid of many practices including performance and conceptual art, installation art, video, music, and social activism, which continued to inform much of the work of faculty and students in the 1970s and ’80s. During the late 20th century SFAI expanded their tradition of exploration to include new media practices. After 140 years, the SFAI  faculty, students, and alumni continue to investigate and further define contemporary art and the role of artists in today’s global society.

    photo: courtesy SFAI