photo: SAIKI Taku

Title (passport)

ArtistYAMAZAKI Tsuruko
Year1980
Material/ Techniqueacrylic on canvas
Size/ DurationH53 × W65.3cm
Copyright Notice© YAMAZAKI Tsuruko
Year of acquisition/ donation2007(作品購入年月日:2007/08/31)
DescriptionBorn in Hyogo, Japan in 1925. Died in Hyogo in 2019.

Yamazaki Tsuruko was a founding member of the Gutai Group, which was formed in 1954. She later participated in the establishment of the Artist Union and has taken part in solo and group exhibitions where she has presented a range of works including three-dimensional pieces made using sheets of tin, performances, and paintings. Throughout her decades-long career, Yamazaki has produced work on the themes of real and virtual images and sight/cognition/recreation that expresses her unique outlook on the relationship between the individual and the world.

The Gutai Group’s avant-garde theory of art, epitomized by leader YOSHIHARA Jiro’s dictum, “create what no one has ever done before,” continued to have a major influence on Yamazaki’s subsequent artistic activities. "Not a Triple Mirror" consists of several sheets of tin coated with colorful dye joined together to form a work 3.3 meters tall and 6.6 meters wide. Created in 1956, this work was first exhibited at a Gutai Group outdoor exhibition under the title "Triple Mirror". The original piece is no longer extant, so Yamazaki recreated it for a collection exhibition at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa in 2007. The work was given its 1956 title without the approval of the artist, so at the behest of Yamazaki it was changed to "Not a Triple Mirror" to coincide with its recreation. "The Cans" is a collection of randomly arranged dyed tin cans. These and other works by Yamazaki have an overwhelming presence on account of the ripple effect of the combination of the tin, dye, light, and shadow. The world represented by these pieces, both of which involve applying dye to tin, one shaped like a triple mirror and given the title ‘Not a Triple Mirror,’ the other using cans and given the title ‘The Cans,’ conveys Yamazaki’s unique perspective on some of the fundamental themes in art, such as real and virtual images, seeing and recreation.

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