Three decades of paintings from the estate of the Japanese artist Minoru Onoda (1937–2008), who featured in The Guggenheim Museum’s important recent survey of post-war Japanese art, ‘Gutai: Splendid Playground’, are to be exhibited in Basel during this year’s Art Basel Fair at the Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie.
Minoru Onoda is recognised as an important figure in the second wave of the Gutai Group. In 1965, after his participation in the 3rd International Exhibition for Young Artists in Paris in 1964, he joined the group as one its youngest members, and remained faithful thereafter to the dictum of the group’s founder, Jiro Yoshihara: “Do what has never been done before”.
Onoda exhibited consistently in Japan throughout his life, rarely travelling abroad. His work has only occasionally been exhibited in the West, and never before as a solo exhibition. This will also be the first time that work from his estate, represented by the Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie, will be available for public and private collections to acquire.
The title of the exhibition, ‘MARU’, which means circle, derives from the artist’s continuous engagement with the most cosmic of geometric shapes.
Significant holdings of his work are in numerous museum collections, including Ashiya City Museum of Art, Japan; The Miyagi Museum of Art, Japan; Himeji City Museum of Art, Japan; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan.
Travel: The gallery is close to the Kunstmuseum, a three-minute tram ride (number 2 or 15) from the Messeplatz opposite Art Basel.
Tram Stops: Aeschenplatz, Bankverein, Kunstmuseum
