Kikuhata Mokuma was born in 1935 in Nagasaki City. In the late 1950s, he made his earnest entry into the art world as a member of the avant-garde art collective called the “Kyushu-ha.” During the ‘60s, he was the standard-bearer for the “Anti Art” movement that swept the decade, bringing younger, international attention to such works as “Roulette” and “Slave Genealogy” created via his application of the assemblage technique. From the late 1960s, however, and even with the prospect of the upcoming 1970 World Exposition generating excitement throughout the art world, he proceeded to drastically reduce the number of pieces he created over the next 20 years, putting considerable distance between himself and the art world.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of Kikuhata’s passing. It will also coincide with the launch of a project called “Links—Kikuhata Mokuma,” which involves museums across the country exhibiting their own Kikuhata works. Takamatsu Art Museum is also participating in this project. Alongside the exhibition of five works created by Kikuhata during the 1960s, the varied trends in art that developed during that same decade will be introduced through a total of 28 other works from 20 artists, including Kudo Tetsumi, Miki Tomio, Akasegawa Genpei, Shinohara Ushio, and Yokoo Tadanori. This is a wonderful opportunity to appreciate a range of art from the ‘60s, burning with the creative passion of Kikuhata and his youthful contemporaries as they sought out new forms of expression. The results include “Anti Art,” which utilizes junk to upend established values, “Pop Art,” which draws inspiration from everyday life, and other works that incorporate the latest technologies of the period.
(Quoted from the official Website)
