Originally trained in the traditional Japanese painting practice of Nihonga (日本画), a rigorous technique of applying pigment to silk or paper, artist Kazuo Shiraga eventually joined the experimental Gutai group in postwar Japan. Shiraga used his own body as his primary vehicle for artistic expression. He developed an idiosyncratic, vigorous approach to artmaking that synthesized painting and performance. Placing a canvas on the floor, Shiraga would suspend himself from the ceiling by rope, using his feet to apply and manipulate large swaths of paint on the surface. The direct connection between body and material was key to the success of his works, and the resulting paintings are among the most tempestuous and dynamic examples of abstract art in the twentieth century.

–Anne Reeve, from the Glenstone Field Guide