K11 Art Foundation

Tsuruko Yamazaki was born in Ashiya in 1925 and currently lives and works in Ashiya.

Yamazaki is a founding member of Gutai Bijutsu Kyõkai, or Gutai Art Association, the pioneering postwar avant-garde artist group in Japan. As one of the group’s key members, Yamazaki radically shifted Gutai’s focus from the ‘material’ to an exploration of the ‘immaterial’. In addition to her solo exhibition at the Gutai Pinacotheca in 1963, she participated in historic Gutai exhibitions such as the First Gutai Art Exhibition in Tokyo (1955), Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition in Ashiya (1956), and Gutai Art Festival at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka. In the past three decades, Yamazaki was featured in internationally renowned exhibitions including Gutai: Splendid Playground at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013); Gutai: The Spirit of an Era at The National Art Center, Tokyo (2013); the 53^rd Venice Biennale (2009); the 45^th Venice Biennale (1993); and Japon des Avant-gardes 1910–1970 at Centre Pompidou, Paris (1986).

Photo: © Tsuruko Yamazaki

Courtesy of Lads Gallery, Osaka and Take Ninagawa, Tokyo