Fujiko Shiraga

Born: Osaka, 1928. Died: 2015
Period of Membership in GUTAI : 1955-1961

Shiraga graduated from Otemae Senior High School in Osaka. She married Kazuo Shiraga in 1948 and began producing works from around 1952.
At the “Experimental Outdoor Exhibition of Modern Art to Challenge the Mid-Summer Sun” in 1955, she exhibited a three-dimensional work in which a single fissure was inserted into a long, thin, wooden plank.
Shiraga favored the materiality, soft texture, and color of Japanese washi paper. In her early Gutai art exhibitions, she released works characterized by a slight unevenness on the surface caused by tears and wrinkles, utilizing the unique properties of washi paper.
She later created works by collaging cloth, washi paper, and glass fragments and coloring from above. By combining the soft material of washi paper and the sharp material of glass, which have contradicting characteristics, a unique tension is created in the paintings.