Tag Archives: Antoni Tàpies

A Trip to MCA Chicago

mca_destroy

I went out to the MCA today to see the new exhibition, “Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962.” I found out about the show when MCA’s Twitter account posted a video of Saburo Murakami’s son breaking through paper at the exhibition. Below are two pictures I took of the aftermath later on in the day.

mca_son_of_murakami

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Looking through the paper at Shozo Shimamoto’s “Sakuhin (Ana)”

I had known of Saburo Murakami from learning about the Gutai group, and especially its emphasis on bodily movement. Although it wasn’t mentioned on any displays at the MCA (perhaps I missed it), the Gutai group was influenced by Jackson Pollock’s paintings. They were specifically influenced by the way in which Pollock himself moved to create his work. Photographer Hans Namuth provided some documentation of Pollock’s process in 1950:

hansNamuth_Pollock

Another famous example of the Gutai group’s focus on movement is Kazuo Shiraga’s “Challenging Mud”:

Kazuo Shiraga, "Challenging Mud," 1955

Kazuo Shiraga, “Challenging Mud,” 1955

I’ll have to return to the MCA again to see more of the exhibition, since I was only able to see it for about 30 minutes before the museum closed. I was happy to see that they featured Antoni Tàpies. I had originally been drawn to his work simply for my attraction to abstract Rothko-esque color-fields, but, of course, there’s more to his work than that. I’ve never before seen his stuff in person, so I’ll be happy to visit again soon.