Fifty years after his first solo exhibition in 1961, contemporary artist Tadaaki Kuwayama continues to challenge established art concepts in his quest for “Pure Art.”
Kuwayama moved to the United States in 1958, after studying Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. There, he established his own expressive style, employing the materials of Nihonga in paintings that went to extremes to expel meaning and emotion from the picture surface. In the 1970s, his work took on materiality as a result of his selection of neutral colors and inorganic materials. By the 1990s, this work had evolved into spatial constructions employing repetitive panels of artificial mood.
This exhibition features new works giving maximum play to the distinctive architectural spaces of this museum, such as its galleries of varying sizes and proportions, and courtyards. Through Kuwayama’s Project for 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, we will have opportunity to experience his continually evolving art in its current form.

About the Artist

1932
Born in Nagoya
1956
Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
1958
Moved to the U.S.A. Has since made New York his creative base
1961
First solo exhibition, at New York’s Green Gallery. Kuwayama thereafter held solo exhibitions at numerous galleries, and participated in many group exhibitions at museums, in the U.S.A., Europe, and Japan. Since 1990, he has held solo exhibitions responsive to building spaces. In terms of large-scale exhibitions of new works, he has held one-room project solo exhibitions, initially at Chiba City Museum of Art and Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art and thereafter at museums in Europe and at Nagoya City Art Museum and Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art. In May 2010, he held a retrospective exhibition at Nagoya City Art Museum.