An influential postwar artist in Japan, Jirō Takamatsu worked as a sculptor, photographer, painter, and performance artist. He spent his career investigating the interplay of presence and absence, being and nothingness. This is illustrated in Shadow (No. 145), 1966, in Glenstone’s collection, a painting in which the shadow of a hand appears against an off-white panel, giving the stark impression of the presence of an actual hand. A founding member of the collective Hi-Red Center (1963–1964), Takamatsu’s work integrates playful and subversive aspects of Dada and Surrealism with the visual language of Minimalism. Using Tokyo’s urban environment as a canvas for their performative actions, the Hi-Red Center created events that were socially reflective and anti-establishment, calling into question the boundaries of art and life.

–Huy Ha, from the Glenstone Field Guide