As a core member of the Gutai Art Association (hereafter, Gutai) in the mid-'50s, Saburo Murakami (1925-1996) was dedicated to avant-garde attitudes such as critically deviating from various forms of expression of the past, expanding the creative framework, and producing new modes of art. At the same time, while continually pursuing a unique perspective in regard to the link between the self and the outside world, the act of creating art, and the relationship between the work and others, Murakami developed his own type of expression.

Murakami's highly diverse body of work ranges from the well-known "paperbreakthrough" (kami-yaburi) performances and "ball-throwing paintings" (tokyukaiga), and the many paintings he created during the late '50s and '60s, to the series that emerged in the '70s following Gutai's breakup which recalls conceptual art and makes use of a minimal technique. His work exudes an enigmatic air that seems impossible to grasp with a single interpretation while conveying a penetrating impression that seems to be lined with a consistent philosophy and fixed methodology. By appearing to contain a single underlying thesis in the overall display or creating the sense that the exhibition in itself was intended as a single work, Murakami's series of solo shows in the '70s in particular indicate that the artist's specific concerns were embodied in an increasingly lucid form.

Focusing on the seven solo shows* that Murakami held between 1971 and 1977, this exhibition looks back at a period in the artist's career that has received relatively little attention in comparison to his work of the Gutai era. We have adopted a multifaceted approach in order to examine the content of each exhibition and trace Murakami's production activities at the time through his own handwritten memos and notes, photographs, and the works and objects which were created according to certain rules established before or during each event. Moreover, by presenting some ten newly restored paintings created between the early '50s and the late '70s, documentary footage of a "paper breakthroughs" dating to the early Gutai era, reedited versions of performances and an interview from the late '80s and early '90s as well as the aforementioned works and materials from the '70s, we hope to provide viewers with an opportunity to reconsider and reexamine the life and ideas Murakami pursued throughout his approximately 50-year career, problems related to the creation of art, and the methodologies that underlie the creative expressions that he developed and transformed in a variety of ways.

Among Saburo Murakami's artistic concerns were the inevitable acceptance of chance that is born out of the relationship between one's self and one's subject, and the act of establishing this in the form of a work; the reuniting of time and space, which have been separated by thought, in a site through the use of a physical act; and the simple recognition and thorough enjoyment of the phenomena one sees before their eyes (i.e., the "here and now") rather than searching for an underlying conceptual reason or meaning by creating situations that are void of substance (empty states).

These concerns can be found in each of Murakami's expressions and words, including his "paper breakthroughs," which produced a magnetic field through the combination of violent movement and sharp sound that emerged when the artist's entire body crashed through several layers of brown kraft paper; and the countless "boxes" he presented as a mere presence rather than a container used to hold something.

In the '70s, following the breakup of the Gutai Art Association, Murakami organized a series of solo exhibitions as an independent artist. In these events, he might collect and dismantle a number of wooden boxes after he had placed them in various spots around the city, listen raptly to the sounds visitors made with wooden clappers, remain in the venue without uttering a word throughout the exhibition, or repeatedly pour water back and forth from one bowl to another. In other words, by vividly destroying traditional concepts regarding
the "works" and the "exhibition," Murakami created a witty and stimulating "negotiation site" filled with realizations that led a simple act to be transformed from a casual everyday event into a thing of wonder and infinite creativity.

In this series of solo shows, in which a single thesis seems to pervade all of the displays or the exhibition itself is a single work, Murakami's awareness of "time" and "space," "certainty" and "chance," and "here and now" assumes an increasingly refined form. While on the one hand, Murakami's intention to share a phenomenon or experience with the viewer (other people) grew increasingly precise, the exhibitions also seemed to be interspersed with a deepening gaze that reflected his understanding of things, and a kind of sign that raised further questions regarding perception.

Here, we reflect and reexamine the content of each exhibition by newly arranging, categorizing, and discovering links via the notes in which Murakami recorded thoughts related to the creation of each space and scraps of paper containing flashes of inspiration, accumulations and traces of dialogues and actions that grew out of these activities, objects produced as works during the same period, and countless photographs documenting the situation surrounding each event. And by referring to some 20 materials and works, including charts detailing the placement and collection of the boxes used in Murakami's solo exhibition, Box, and memos from the handwritten conversations the artist engaged in with visitors during the so-called "silence" exhibition, it is possible to trace the trajectory of the artist's actions and thoughts. We have also attempted to reproduce the largely unknown "wooden-clappers" and the Dislike for the Principle of Identity exhibitions in their entirety. Moreover, by assembling films of the "paper breakthroughs" of the '50s and '60s that preceded these exhibitions, paintings from every phase of the artist's career, and documentary footage of several of his performances from the late '80s and early '90s, we have set out to introduce a series of streams that informed Saburo Murakami's artistic development over his approximately 50-year career.