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INVENTORY PRESS
Jiro Takamatsu
Text by Hiroyuki Nakanishi, Jordan Carter, Jiro Takamatsu.
Pioneering conceptualist Jiro Takamatsu (1936–98), a major influence on the artists of the Mono-ha movement, had a career that spanned 40-plus years, during which time his considerable influence as an artist, theorist and teacher extended across the Japanese postwar cultural landscape. Takamatsu sought to take art outside conventional and institutional settings, collapsing the boundaries between art and life. His practice shifts across appearance and materials, from drawing and sculpture to photography. This volume catalogs recently exhibited works (at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles), including the seminal “Rusty Ground.” Also included are archival photography of the artist’s studio, historical process images and stills from a 1974 Japanese television documentary depicting Takamatsu at work. Copiously illustrated, the book offers a timely reevaluation of Takamatsu’s practice following a significant resurgence of appreciation for the Japanese avant-garde.
"Shadow" (No. 1410)" (1997) is reproduced from 'Jiro Takamatsu.'
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FROM THE BOOK
”On Totality” by Jiro Takamatsu, originally published as “Zentaisei ni tsuite” in gq no. 2 (January 1973)
On “totality,” or on the annoyance of getting a straight line in poster color smudged with a sleeve after having drawn it by carefully deploying a ruler and a drawing pen.
We always feel annoyed when a child smears a newly painted white wall with muddy hands, or when we splash coffee on a newly bought book still reeking the smell of printing ink. It is not limited to these instances, but it is exceptionally rare for us to be delighted when something happens to a certain thing outside its anticipated relationship.
The American sculptor Tony Smith was reportedly inspired to create abstract sculpture after having sighted discarded airplane parts and debris in a corner of an airport. He found them beautiful, realizing that was because these things lacked preconceived images. We sometimes find a stain on the wall or a smudge on printed matter so beau tiful. This may have something to do with Smith’s episode. That is to say, when certain predetermined relationships—that the wall should not have scars or stains, printed matter should not have wrinkles or smudges—are removed, when our fixed ideas and consciousnesses about things are removed, various things attract us in such a way never perceived before.
In these circumstances, no matter how tiny an object might be, when we humans have a relationship with it, that relationship becomes multilateral and multidimensional, wherein we can get in touch with its totality. It is not unlike a love affair that evolves in such a way to infinitely expand confirmation.
Still, it goes without saying that humans can never have a completely total relationship with a thing or comprehend its totality. Even if we can destroy a certain fixed idea and have an expansive relationship under a new consciousness, such a relationship eternally constitutes a part within the infinity that is true totality. If let alone, this new consciousness, too, soon turns into another fixed idea. Having said that, a consciousness ought to be able to have a direction opposite of binding things tightly with the established and fixed ideas.
In order to appreciate the riches hidden in each and every thing, we need to have a perpetual revolution of self.
At any rate, we cannot really do anything about the annoyance of getting a straight line in poster color smudged with a sleeve after having drawn it by carefully deploying a ruler and a drawing pen.
"Suppose there is a leaf of a tree. When we see the tree, the leaf is a part of it,” pioneering Japanese artist Jiro Takamatsu wrote in 1972. "However, if we see it as a leaf, it becomes the whole.… When we say a certain existence (being) is a whole, we mean the agreement of its existence (being) and its concept (language). When we say something is a part, we mean the disagreement of the two. I am interested in parts because of such disagreements. But for me, these disagreements must be intensified and their gaps must be widened.” Reproduced from the appropriately concise and exquisite new monograph from Inventory Press and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, “Compound” is a book design produced 1976-91. continue to blog
“I want to see what happens within the realm of art always in relation to reality,” Japanese artist Jiro Takamatsu wrote in 1977. “I want to see other artists’ works while making my own work. I want to see as directly as possible artistic inspirations from realities, artistic transformations of realities that happen around art. The basic method I have adopted is to think and treat a work not in the dimension of fiction or imagery particular to art, but in the dimension of real concrete being...” Compound (1972/2015) is reproduced from the beautiful new monograph from Inventory Press and Kayne Griffin Corcoran. continue to blog
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FORMAT: Pbk, 7.75 x 10.25 in. / 144 pgs / 100 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $53.95 GBP £35.00 ISBN: 9781941753118 PUBLISHER: Inventory Press AVAILABLE: 6/27/2017 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Inventory Press. Text by Hiroyuki Nakanishi, Jordan Carter, Jiro Takamatsu.
Pioneering conceptualist Jiro Takamatsu (1936–98), a major influence on the artists of the Mono-ha movement, had a career that spanned 40-plus years, during which time his considerable influence as an artist, theorist and teacher extended across the Japanese postwar cultural landscape. Takamatsu sought to take art outside conventional and institutional settings, collapsing the boundaries between art and life. His practice shifts across appearance and materials, from drawing and sculpture to photography.
This volume catalogs recently exhibited works (at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles), including the seminal “Rusty Ground.” Also included are archival photography of the artist’s studio, historical process images and stills from a 1974 Japanese television documentary depicting Takamatsu at work. Copiously illustrated, the book offers a timely reevaluation of Takamatsu’s practice following a significant resurgence of appreciation for the Japanese avant-garde.
