was an important member of the

Gutai The was a Japanese avant-garde artist group founded in the Hanshin region by young artists under the leadership of the painter Jirō Yoshihara in Ashiya, Japan, in 1954. It operated until shortly after Yoshihara's death in 1972. The group, toda ...

Group's younger generation having joined the group in 1965. His 'Paintings of Propagation' theory was a crucial step in his early career. He was included in the important retrospectives on the Gutai Group at the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

in New York in 2013 and the National Art Center in Tokyo in 2012. The 2022 Gutai retrospectives 'Into the Unknown World – GUTAI: differentiation and Integration',

National Museum of Art, Osaka is a subterranean Japanese art museum located on the island of Nakanoshima, located between the Dōjima River and the Tosabori River, about 10 minutes west of Higobashi Station in central Osaka. The official Japanese title of the museum trans ...

, and Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, JP included many of his works.

Biography

Minoru Onoda was born 1937 in Manshu, North-East District, China (Japanese-occupied Manchuria Jilin Province, China). He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts, Osaka, Japan from 1956 to 1958 and from 1958–1960 at the Osaka School of Art (currently Osaka College of Art). He lived most of his life in Himeji, Japan where he died in 2008. After publishing his "Paintings of Propagation' theory in 1961 and participating in the 3rd International Exhibition for Young Artists in Paris in 1964, Onoda Minoru joined

and stayed faithful to their leader Yoshihara Jiro's motto to "do what has never been done before" for the rest of his career. The Gutai Group was the first radical artistic movement after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in Japan. This influential group was involved in large-scale multimedia environments, performances, and theatrical events and emphasizes the relationship between body and matter in pursuit of originality. Through newly-available materials and artistic freedom post WWII, Onoda questioned new forms, styles and hierarchy through lines and circles. Awed by manufacturing concepts of repetition and quantity, he chose amalgamations of gradually-sized dots on panel with relief, creating organically-growing shapes, progressing to infinite circles and finally monochrome painting where the edge matters. During his lifetime Onoda chose to sell primarily to museums and institutions. His paintings have been extensively exhibited in Japan and were included in the major retrospectives: "Gutai, The Spirit of an Era", National Art Center Tokyo, in 2012 and "Gutai : Splendid Playground” at the

, New York, in 2013.
Monograph
on the artist containing 232 pages and over 170 photographs was published in 2019 by Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie through the publisher Scheidegger & Spiess- English and Japanese editions () At the occasion of the major retrospective at the Himeji City Museum of Art, Seigensha published a second monograph on the Gutai artist Minoru Onoda with 432 pages. All essays are in both Japanese and English ().

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected recent group exhibitions

Permanent installations, museum and public collections

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...

, Rotterdam, NL Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, JP Himeji City Gallery, Himeji, JP
Ashiya City Museum of Art and History
Ashiya, JP The Miyagi Museum of Art, JP HOLE・CUT・LIGHT, Nissan Corporation, Himeji, JP Literature monument of Rinzo Shiina, Himeji, JP Himeji City Hall, Himeji, JP Himeji Kohryo Junior High School, Himeji, JP Art Kite Museum, DE Private collections in Japan, US, UK and Switzerland

Awards

External links

Website about the work of Minoru Onoda

Article in the Financial Times with picture, June 17, 2017

Article in Hyperallergic, June 17, 2017

Major catalogues

Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie AG
- Monograph on 'Minoru Onoda' with 232 pages and over 170 photographs, published by Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich (English version) and (Japanese Version) * Alexandra Munroe and Ming Tiampo - Gutai: Splendid Playground, published by Guggenheim Museum Publications, New York * Ming Tiampo - ''Gutai: Decentering Modernism'', published by

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Press * Onoda Minoru no sekai ten : gendai kyōdo sakkaten
Catalog
of an exhibition held at Himeji Shiritsu Bijutsukan, Jan. 9-30, 2004 * Art Kites: Pictures for the Sky/Kunstdrachen. Bilder für den Himmel,

Haus der Kunst The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a museum for modern and contemporary art in Munich, Bavaria. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. It was built between 1933 an ...

, Munich, 1989 {{DEFAULTSORT:Onoda, Minoru Japanese contemporary artists Gutai group member artists