Sadamasa Motonaga

Sadamasa Motonaga was a Japanese visual artist and book illustrator, and a pioneering member of the postwar Gutai Art Association.

Biography of Sadamasa Motonaga

Born in 1922 in Mie Prefecture, Japan, Sadamasa Motonaga aspired to become a manga artist. As a young adult, he worked as a national railway employee and later as a postal clerk, all the while submitting comic strips to magazines. 

In 1944, he started studying painting under the guidance of Ueno-based painter Mankichi Hamabe. After the end of the Asian-Pacific War, during which he worked at a munitions plant, Motonaga returned to painting and became involved in the local art scene in the Hanshin region.

After moving to Kobe-Uozaki in 1952, he enrolled in sketching and oil painting classes at the nearby Nishinomiya Art School. By 1953, he was actively participating in the Ashiya City Art Association’s annual exhibitions. 

His early work, characterized by humorous biomorphic abstract paintings and objects crafted from everyday household materials, garnered praise from Jirō Yoshihara, a founding member and juror of the Association. Impressed by his talent, Yoshihara invited him to join the Gutai Art Association (commonly known as Gutai) in 1955. As a member of Gutai, Motonaga actively contributed to the group’s exhibitions and projects, including the Gutai journal, outdoor exhibitions, and stage shows. These endeavors led to a multitude of pioneering performances, paintings, and interactive installations that pushed the boundaries of artistic experimentation.

In 1966, Motonaga relocated to New York to participate in a residency program organized by the Japan Society. Motonaga spent nearly a year immersing himself in New York’s vibrant art scene. During this time, forged friendships with notable figures like the Japanese translator, poet, and writer Shuntarō Tanikawa. Motonaga also connected with other Japanese artists based in New York such as Tadanori Yokoo, Yūji Takahashi, and Toshi Ichiyanagi. His time in New York allowed him to experiment with new materials and techniques in his painting, including emulsion paints, spray paint, airbrushing, and Liquitex acrylic paint.

Upon returning to Japan, Motonaga remained active in Gutai exhibitions, showcasing his works consistently. Throughout the 1970s, he continued to hold solo and group exhibitions, primarily in art venues across the Kansai region. By the 1980s, Motonaga’s artworks were increasingly featured in retrospective Gutai exhibitions held in Europe, the US, and Japan.

During the 1990s, he continued to participate in and travel to numerous retrospective Gutai exhibitions, while also organizing his own solo museum retrospectives. Motonaga began teaching at the Seian University of Art and Design in 1996. He passed away in 2011.

Sadamasa Motonaga's Art Style

Sadamasa Motonaga emerged during a period when post-atomic surrealist existentialism was prominent in Japan's artistic evolution. Despite this context, Motonaga diverged, rejecting the war's devastation to create artworks—paintings, sculptures, and performances—that exuded freshness, joyfulness, and playfulness.

In 1954, he began using a language of embryonic shapes, flying objects, and cartoon-like forms rendered in thick oil paint, demonstrating his fascination with children's art, manga, and popular culture, and blurring the boundaries between high and low art. 

By 1957, Motonaga's work evolved toward abstraction, characterized by flowing lines and pools of vividly colored pigment poured and dripped onto canvases. This "classic style" remained Motonaga's focus until the mid-1960s. During this period, he reintroduced an anthropomorphic sensibility in his paintings, featuring extruded and knotted forms delicately rendered with an airbrush.

In the 1970s, the artist reintroduced his scratchy hand-drawn forms and began utilizing canned spray paint, resulting in a style that was vibrant and raw, reminiscent of graffiti and animation.

Sadamasa Motonaga held a distinctive place in the Japanese art scene, bridging visual elements from the immediate postwar era with the emerging concerns found in the works of contemporary painters like Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, and others.