Whitestone Ginza New Gallery is proud to present you the exhibition of Asian abstract art. For this time, we are connecting Gutai art association from Japan who upraised after World War II and abstract painting that emerges in the late 80 of China. Gutai art association represents the art scene in Japan after world war II. Gutai artists were highly influenced by Expressionism of the west. They broke down the traditional form of painting, reconstructed the image and transcended the physical form into spiritual representation. They treated their creative processes as performances where they would discover the dialogue between materiality and its surrounding. Female artist, Atsuko Tanaka, as one of the prominent figure of Gutai art association, presented her “Electric Dress” in 1956 and excited the international art scene. She put her bright line and circles on the flat surface of paper in large size canvas to express the vibration between human and object. Tsuyoshi Maekawa, inspired by the patterns on the ancient pottery found in Ueno, Japan, stitched linen on to the flat canvas and then applied plentiful of color on his works. He dedicated his whole life to the materiality of linen which has become the signature of Tsuyoshi Maekawa. Chinese abstract art started after the Reform and Opening in the 1980’s. Artists liberated themselves from propaganda and social realism artistic formation. Highly influenced by western philosophy and aesthetic, they began to discover their own culture in art through imitation and referencing. Ding Yi was considered to be the pioneer of Chinese abstract art. Both the character — “十” — and the variant —”X” — are the primary symbols used in his series of works . His works not only transcend but also confront the classic political and social fable paintings of China at the time. In 2000, Zhu Jinshi returned to painting. However, his impasto was to antagonize painting itself. By layering paint one by one, he created a thick color block which in return has a sculptural visual effect. By unpacking the concept of abstraction of the 1980s, a new chapter of Chinese abstract art was beginning to emerge. The purpose of the exhibition is to show and analyze the development of abstract art in East Asia by providing the audiences with a list of important abstract artists found after World War II. Represented artists: Chen Wenji, Yu Youhan, Ding Yi, Shang Yang, Tan Ping, Zhu Jinshi, Tsuyoshi Maekawa, Atsuko Tanaka