Minoru Yoshida

Born: Osaka,1935. Died: 2010
Period of Membership in GUTAI: 1965-1972

Yoshida joined Gutai in 1965 through Kazuo Shiraga, who was his senior in high school and university. Yoshida originally worked on fluid paintings in the Art Informel style, but switched focus during the Gutai era, releasing symbolic forms which resembled plants and female genitalia, as well as distorted mirror image-like colored surfaces. Following this, in 1967, he moved away from painting as a medium, and began working on mechanical three-dimensional pieces which moved. His fluorescent, transparent plastic in the shape of petals which rotated and was illuminated by black light can be described as psychedelic. Yoshida’s practice of using light and sound to work on the exhibition space will likely be positioned in the context of ”environmental art.” In 1970, Yoshida traveled to the United States immediately before the World Expo, where he explored sound and physical expression in New York.