Bidspirit auction | Shozo Shimamoto (Japan, 1928-2013) -

Shozo Shimamoto (Japan, 1928-2013) - Bottle Crash in Venice 08 (2007) - Acrylic and broken glass on canvas. Dimensions: 117 × 115 cm. This work was created during the artist's performance at the 2007 Venice Biennale, as part of the ”Bottle Crash in Venice” project, a collateral event of the 52nd Venice Biennale. Conceived on October 6, 2007, in the Cloister of San Nicolò, this piece embodies Shimamoto's violent and poetic gesture of smashing colorful bottles onto the canvas, resulting in a spontaneous and unrepeatable composition. The visible stains, marks, and textures are the direct result of this artistic action and are integral to the work. The piece was preserved in a Venetian palace from the day of the performance until its acquisition by the current owners. Like Yves Klein with his anthropometries, which were ephemeral performances conceived to be pure action and moment, Shimamoto generates a material residue. This residue becomes a vestige of the performative act and acquires value as a work of art in itself. Shozo Shimamoto (Osaka, 1928–2013) was a co-founder of the Gutai Movement (1954), a pioneer of performance art in Japan, which sought to liberate pictorial matter from traditional control to let color and action speak for themselves. In 1957, he created a “color cannon” for the historic Gutai Stage Exhibition, integrating performance and visual art. In addition to his artistic work, he was noted for his pacifist activism and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. In 1998, the MOCA in Los Angeles recognized him as one of the four most important post-war artists, alongside Pollock, Fontana, and Cage, and in 1999 he participated in the Venice Biennale with David Bowie and Yoko Ono. He has exhibited in major projects such as Artempo (Palazzo Fortuny) and organized the inclusive Art Challenged event in Beijing (2007). His work is included in collections including the Tate Gallery, the Centre Pompidou, and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome. In 2017, his piece Explosion 64-1 broke records at Sotheby's Hong Kong, fetching over €2 million. Located in international storage.