Shintaro Tanaka
: Far Removed from Meaning

Just prior to his nineteenth birthday Shintaro Tanaka (1940–2019) left the city of Hitachi for Tokyo, where he soon became involved in the “anti-art” Neo-Dada movement. After a brief, frenetic period working alongside contemporary artist Ushio Shinohara, Tanaka adopted an entirely different approach to production, making a name for himself with works consisting of simple forms, including incorporating heart shapes, and using neon tubes. Around this time he met designer Shiro Kuramata, the pair forming a friendship that would endure right up to Kuramata’s untimely death. Tanaka began to experiment with bringing forth expression at a remove from the maker’s emotions, during this period also participating in numerous overseas exhibitions including the youth-focused Biennale de Paris, and Venice Biennale. In due course, however, he chose to move his studio from Setagaya to Hitachi, away from the hustle of the Tokyo art world and toward a more introspective environment for his practice.

Following a serious illness, in 1985 Tanaka made his comeback with yet another significant style shift, this time to works of vibrantly hued complexity combining two- and three-dimensional forms. Refusing to simply repeat the same thing, he thus continued to present new modalities in his art, yet all the while remained committed to exploring the essence of art from a base of “seeing.”

Consisting primarily of works remaining in the artist’s studio after his death, this exhibition reflects on the career of Shintaro Tanaka, including in his own words, in the process delving into the mysteries of creation concealed deep within Tanaka’s own quiet, understated creations.