Sadaharu Horio Artworks

Gutai

During his involvement with the Gutai Art Association, Horio often experimented with material, form, and the non-figurative. In his piece Work (1967), Horio hammered nails into the middle of the canvas to create a depression. He then added pieces of fabric hardened with plaster and finally painted on these layers. The resulting work was both a painting and a critique on paintings traditional forms.

Even well after the Gutai Art Association's dissolution, Horio continued to root his art practice into the ordinary and commonplace, taking from everyday objects and surfaces including scraps of metal, pieces of wood, and discarded material.

Routine and spontaneity

Horio's artworks have embraced both routine and spontaneity. When he was diagnosed with acute cataracts and was left with the possibility of becoming blind, Horio began a practice of painting a variety of objects with one colour a day. This practice, which he called ironuri (paint placement), enabled Horio to maintain a daily practice of painting, integrating art into his everyday life.

Apart from ironuri, Horio also developed ippun dahō (one-minute hitting method) in the 90s, in which the artist added one layer of paint to an object each morning, executing daily drawings within less than a minute. He used his practice of ippun dahō in his performance works, most notably in his '100 Yen Paintings' (2002) series. In this work, viewers would insert ¥100 to a vending machine-like booth where Horio would be sitting creating quick and spontaneous works on paper.

Myokonin-den

Between 1992—2002, Horio and his co-worker Hisaki Shuji created a large-scale woodblock series entitled 'Myokonin-den.' With Horio responsible for the images and Shuji with carving, the duo created over 100 works within the next 10 years. This series was inspired by a book of the same name written about Buddhist devotees of the Shinshu sect who, despite their illiteracy, found spiritual awakening through their faith.