Shinro Ohtake Zen-kei: Retrospective 1955-2006

The first major retrospective exhibition ever devoted to painter Shinro Ohtake, an artist who has continually evolved and remained a creative force at the forefront of contemporary art, will be held at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT). Occupying the entire temporary exhibitions floor at one of Japan’s largest art museums, the exhibition will present the full scope ＜“Zenkei”＞ of this artist’s work―a solo exhibition of unprecedented scale for an artist currently active in Japan.

Since bursting onto the scene as the standard-bearer for “new painting”　in Japan in the early 1980s, Shinro Ohtake has painted ceaselessly, taking as subject matter all and everything appearing to him in the world before his eyes, and producing a body of works nearly unequaled in quality and volume. An artist remarkable in the breadth of his activities, he has simultaneously with painting worked in almost every other medium as the impulse strikes him―three-dimensional art, photography, books, printed matter, and sound. His influence as an artist, we can fairly say, extends to a spectrum of genres beyond the world of art, including photography, design, literature, and music, and touches people of all generations.

Yet, for all this, because opportunity has not coincided with the availability of a venue adequate for displaying such an immense volume and rich diversity of works, many aspects of his oeuvre even now remain shrouded in mystery. This exhibition represents a rare opportunity to introduce the entire range of Shinro Ohtake‘s work through over 2,000 select pieces, from his childhood sketches to powerful new works he is creating for this exhibition―and including the first-ever public display of all the scrapbooks he has made for private enjoyment during the past 30 years.