was a Japanese painter, art educator, curator, and businessman.
Mainly known for his gestural abstract impasto paintings from the 1950s and Zen-painting inspired hard-edge Circles beginning in the 1960s, Yoshihara's oeuvre also encompasses drawings, murals, sculptures, calligraphy, ink wash paintings, ceramics, watercolors, and stage design.
Yoshihara was a key figure of postwar Japanese art and culture through his work as painter, art educator, promoter of the arts, and networker between the arts, commerce, and industry in the Kansai region and beyond, and, especially, as the leader of the postwar avant-garde art collective Gutai Art Association, which he co-founded in 1954. Under Yoshihara's guidance, Gutai explored radically experimental approaches, including outdoor exhibitions, performances, onstage presentations, and interactive works. Fueled by Yoshihara's global ambitions, Gutai developed artistic strategies to communicate internationally and insert themselves into a globalizing art world.
Aside from his artistic activities, Yoshihara was involved in the management and direction of his family's cooking oil business Yoshihara Oil Mill, Ltd.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in Osaka in 1905 as the second son of a vegetable oil wholesaler, Yoshihara grew up in the wealthy and refined cosmopolitan environment.Hirai, Shōichi, “Prewar Kansai Cosmopolitanism and Postwar Gutai”, in: Gutai: Splendid Playground, ed. Alexandra Munroe and Ming Tiampo, exhib. cat., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2013, pp. 243–247, here pp. 243–244. (After his older brother's death in 1914, he became the future heir of the family business.Hirai, Shōichi, "具体"って何だ？/ What’s Gutai?, Tokyo: Bijutsu shuppan-sha, 2004, p. 23.
Yoshihara showed artistic talent and interest in painting as a child, acquiring his skill in oil painting auto-didactically. He was deeply impressed by the humanist idealism of the literary movement of Shirakabaha (White Birch Society), which also promoted post-Impressionist artists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Renoir.Tiampo, Ming, Gutai: Decentering Modernism, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011, p. 14.Hirai, Shōichi, “Gutai: A Utopia of the Modern Spirit”, Gutai: The Spirit of an Era, exhib. cat., The National Art Center Tokyo, Tokyo: The National Art Center Tokyo, 2012, pp. 241–278, here pp. 244–245.Tiampo, Ming, “’Create What Has Never Been Done Before!’ Historicising Gutai Discourses of Originality”, Third Text 21/6 (2007): 689–706, here pp. 690–691. Yoshihara attended the Kitano Secondary School in Osaka and studied commerce at the Kwansei Gakuin University's business college."吉原治良 日本美術年鑑所載物故者記事" (Year book of Japanese art, obituaries: Yoshihara Jiro), Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, https://www.tobunken.go.jp/materials/bukko/9412.html. Retrieved 2021-05-21.“Biography of Yoshihara Jiro”, Artrip Museum, Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, http://www.nak-osaka.jp/en/gutai_yoshihara_life.html. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
After contracting tuberculosis in 1925, Yoshihara moved to Ashiya and became acquainted with Ashiya-based artists such as the established painter Jirō Kamiyama, who taught Yoshihara about European culture and art,“年譜” (Chronology), in: 吉原治良展: 没後20年 / Jiro Yoshihara, exhib. cat., Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya: Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, 1992, pp. 216–225, here p. 216. and Saburō Hasegawa, who became a friend and comrade-in-arms in promoting abstract art.Kawasaki Kōichi, “吉原治良と長谷川三郎” (Jirō Yoshihara and Saburō Hasegawa), in: 吉原治良研究論集 (Yoshihara Jirō studies), ed. Yoshihara Jirō kenkyūkai (Yoshihara Jirō study group), Ashiya: Yoshihara Jirō kenkyūkai, 2002, pp. 84–98. Yoshihara later recalled that Kamiyama had told him that “originality and personality are the most important things.”Tiampo, Gutai: Decentering Modernism, p. 19.
Yoshihara participated in the exhibitions of the painters’ group Sōenkai (Grass Garden Group), and in 1926 became a member of the Kwansei Gakuin University's painting club Gengetsukai (Crescent Moon Group). His first solo exhibition of oil paintings took place in 1928.
Facilitated by Kamiyama, Yoshihara met painters Seiji Tōgō in 1928 and Tsuguharu Fujita in 1929 during their stopovers in Kobe on their return from their yearlong stays in Europe.Kawasaki Kōichi, “吉原治良と芦屋”, in: 吉原治良展: 没後20年 / Jiro Yoshihara, exhib. cat., Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya: Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, 1992, pp. 174–178, here pp. 174–175.Kawasaki, “吉原治良と長谷川三郎”, p. 87. Fujita's observation that Yoshihara's works showed too much influence of other artists left a lasting impact, urging him to pursue originality. Recognizing Yoshihara's talent, Fujita encouraged him to study painting in Paris, but Yoshihara ultimately gave up on this plan at his father's objection.“年譜”, in: 吉原治良展: 没後20年, p. 216.Tiampo, Gutai: Decentering Modernism, p. 80. In 1929, Yoshihara married Chiyo Okuda, with whom he had four sons.“年譜”, in: 吉原治良展: 没後20年, pp. 216–217. In the same year, Yoshihara quit Kwansei Gakuin University's graduate course and joined his family's business. Yoshihara worked as an auditor, then as a board director beginning in 1941, and in 1955 became president of Yoshihara Oil Mill, Ltd.
In the 1920s Yoshihara created paintings, among them still-lives, which merged the influences of French post-impressionism and early Japanese modern oil painting.Tiampo, Gutai: Decentering Modernism, pp. 19–21. In the early 1930s he adopted a style that reflected that of Giorgio de Chirico. Beginning in 1934 Yoshihara showed works in the exhibitions of Nika-kai (Second Section Society, commonly known as Nika).
Around 1936, Yoshihara began experimenting with the visual language of organic and geometric abstraction, inspired by European and British abstract artists.Hirai Shōichi, “吉原治良の1930年代の抽象絵画: 素描と蔵書が語ること”, (Jirō Yoshihara's abstract paintings from the 1930s), in: 吉原治良研究論集 (Yoshihara Jirō studies), ed. Yoshihara Jirō kenkyūkai (Yoshihara Jirō study group), Ashiya: Yoshihara Jirō kenkyūkai, 2002, pp. 23–40, here p. 28. In 1938, together with other avant-garde members of Nika who were pursuing abstraction and Surrealism, Yoshihara founded the Kyūshitsukai (Room Nine Society), which organized its own exhibitions.Adachi Gen, “Artwords: Kyūshitsukai”, https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php/%E4%B9%9D%E5%AE%A4%E4%BC%9A. Retrieved 2021-05-25.Takayanagi Yukiko, “吉原治良と九室会” (Jirō Yoshihara and Kyūshitsukai), in: 未知の表現を求めて: 吉原治良の挑戦 / Jiro Yoshihara: Leader of Gutai – Seeking for the New, exhib. cat., Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya: Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, 2015, pp. 10–13. Following the Japanese government's intensification of its war efforts in Asia in the late 1930s and its anti-communist and anti-liberal oppression measures, which also affected artists, Kyūshitsukai ceased all activities in 1943.Hirai, Shōichi, “On Gutai”, in Gutai: Dipingere con il tempo e lo spazio / Gutai: Painting in Time and Space, exhib. cat., Museo cantonale d’arte, Lugano, Lugano: Museo cantonale d’arte, 2011, pp. 143–161, here pp. 145–149. In 1944, Yoshihara, spared from military service due to a recurrence of tuberculosis, evacuated to Ōzōchō, Hyōgo Prefecture.“年譜”, in: 吉原治良展: 没後20年, p. 217.
Early postwar years, 1945–1955 After the end of World War II, Yoshihara immediately engaged in rebuilding the art scene and cultural life in the Kansai region and beyond. Beginning around 1946, he also created designs for posters, products, window displays, and murals, as well as stage sets for operettas, dance performances, open-air concerts, theater productions, and fashion shows.Hirai, “Prewar Kansai Cosmopolitanism and Postwar Gutai”, pp. 244–246.
Yoshihara was actively involved in the rebuilding of Nika in 1945. He attended meetings of the Tensekikai (Group of Rolling Stones) led by philosopher Tsutomu Ijima, co-founded artists groups such as the Han-bijutsu Kyōkai (Pan-Art Association), the Nihon Avangyarudo Bijutsuka Kurabu (Avant-Garde Artists Club Japan) in 1947, the Ashiya City Art Association in 1948 (a local umbrella group that hosted its own local salon, Ashiya City Exhibition), and the Nihon Absutorakuto Āto Kurabu (Abstract Art Club Japan) and Āto Kurabu (Art Club) in 1953.
He also participated in educational activities, mentoring young artists at his home or, from 1949 to 1958, at the Osaka Shiritsu Bijutsu Kenkyūjo (Osaka Art Research Institute, an art school affiliated with Municipal Art Museum). As an established member of the art world, he served as a juror for children's and students’ art exhibitions, such as Dōbiten (Children Art Exhibition, originally Jidō sōsaku bitsuten Children's Creative Art Exhibition) and Bi’ikuten (Art Education Exhibition), and collaborating with the children's poetry magazine Kirin (Giraffe).Yamamoto Atsuo, “'きりん'と吉原治良: 深江小学校 橋本学級を中心に” (Kirin and Jirō Yoshihara), in: 吉原治良研究論集, pp. 71–83, here pp. 71–72.Natsu Oyobe, Human Subjectivity and Confrontation with Materials in Japanese Art: Yoshihara Jiro and Early Years of the Gutai Art Association, 1947–1958, PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 2005, p. 85.
Together with artists such as Shigeru Ueki, Kokuta Suda, Makoto Nakamura, in 1952 Yoshihara founded Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai (Contemporary Art Discussion Group, commonly known as Genbi), an interdisciplinary forum for Kansai-based artists, critics, scholars and experts to engage in interdisciplinary thematic discussion sessions and joint exhibitions. Among the participants were painters, sculptors, industrial, product and fashion designers, photographers, and in particular avant-garde artists from the traditional arts, such as calligraphy, ceramics, and ikebana, which encompassed members of Bokujinkai (Ink People Society), Sōdeisha (Running Mud Association), Shikōkai (Four Plowmen Group), and the Ohara, Sōgetsu, and Mishō ikebana schools.Kunii Aya, “ゲンビ: 1950年代のアヴァンギャルド: 追い求めた'新しい造形'", in: ゲンビ: 現代美術懇談会の軌跡 1952–1957 / Genbi: New Era for Creations, exhib. cat., Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Ashiya: Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, 2013, pp. 73–75. They shared a strong global aspiration and an enthusiasm for modern abstract art. In addition, Yoshihara participated in roundtable discussions of Bokujinkai and the Ohara school, contributed texts and illustrations to their publications (including Bokubi), and benefitted from the artistic exchanges they hosted with European and US-American abstract painters such as Pierre Soulages, Jackson Pollock, and others.Tiampo, Gutai: Decentering Modernism, pp. 76–81.
Gutai Art Association, 1955–1972