Minoru Onoda

Born: Manchuria (Now: Jilin Province), China, 1939. Died: 2008
Period of Membership in GUTAI: 1965-1972

Onoda learned about Gutai while attending the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts Art Institute, after seeing the “Gutai Art on the Stage” exhibition (1957). Following this, he did not have any interaction with the group for a while, but in 1965, he became a member after receiving an invitation from Sadamasa Motonaga.
Onoda’s design philosophy is detailed in ”Paintings of Proliferation”, published in 1961. Onoda’s paintings, which take a critical stance in regard to Art Informel and action painting, are filled with countless ”watashi no maru”[lit: “my circles”]. The lines and circles depicted along bumps in the canvas are reminiscent of “products produced in an automated factory,” and have no meaning in and of themselves. Onoda’s aim was to ”discover wonders in that vast senselessness.”