Shozo Shimamoto

Born: Osaka, 1928. Died: 2013
Period of Membership in GUTAI : 1954-1971

Shimamoto apprenticed under Jiro Yoshihara from 1947 while attending Kwansei Gakuin University, releasing sculptures created from razor blades. At the 1952 and 1953 Modern Art Exhibitions, he exhibited works in which holes were opened in “paper-vas”, which resembled a canvas and was made from old, layered newspapers which had been glued together. Each of these earned him high praise from Yoshihara, and he went on to participate in the formation of the Gutai Art Association in 1954. At the 1956 Gutai Outdoor Art Exhibition, he released a gigantic work created by using a canon to scatter paint via an explosion of acetylene gas. 　
The so-called “bottle-throwing” technique, which is known as Shimamoto’s own unique method of painting, involves throwing a bottle of paint against a stone placed on the canvas, causing the paint to splatter. After earning even higher acclaim for these works, in 1962, he played a major role in his first solo exhibition at the Gutai Pinacotheca.