MISA SHIN GALLERY is happy to announce its upcoming solo exhibition, Begin with Vanishment, by MATSUZAWA Yutaka. 

Born in Shimosuwa, Nagano prefecture in 1922, Matsuzawa is the creator of conceptual art in Japan, and is also globally known as a world pioneer in the same field.

Matsuzawa began his career as early as the 1940s creating poems, paintings and three-dimensional work. At midnight on June 1st , 1964, he is visited with a revelation to “get rid of objects.” After three days of deliberating whether he should create art that rejects relying on objects, on June 4th, Matsuzawa decides to follow his epiphany to create art that is based purely on letters and actions. Since then he has consistently created word-based work, emphasizing the rejection of objects, the extinction of humans and anti-civilization.

The late 60s was also a time period when there was a global trend towards creating art that incorporated literature and various philosophies. Paintings and sculptures were rejected, and replaced by the appearance of conceptual art. Matsuzawa’s work was viewed in line with this trend, yet distinguished himself from the mainstream Western approach towards conceptual art, coining his own work as “Kannen Bijutsu (translation:Notion Art).” By relying only on texts and performances as a means of expression, his extreme minimalistic approach embodies a seductiveness and morbid approach towards disappearance. This is expressed and developed in many ways by incorporating concepts such as catastrophe theory, the Philosophies of Mandala of the Two Realms, quantum mechanics, physics and math, and his original vision towards religion and the cosmic universe.

At this exhibition, MISA SHIN GALLERY will present highlights from Matsuzawa’s career spanning over half a century, including drawings, collages created in the late 50s, and his word-based works created post-1964 from “Yutaka Matsuzawa ψBox” 1983 such as “ψDead Body, ψ Remains”, “A Picture Caught in a Postcard”, “A Swan Song” and “The Nine Meditations Chamber”. 50 years has passed since Matsuzawa was met by revelation to “get rid of objects”, we would like to begin with vanishment to explore the relationship between Art and Concepts.

*image (left)
© MATSUZAWA Yutaka