Shisen 1984

Kazuo Shiraga made this swirling painting, Shisen, with oil paint and I can only imagine the amount of physical energy that went into the work! It's a symphony of pinks, reds, whites, and touches of yellow, all colliding and merging. I see thick gestures and thinned drips. It feels like he was trying to wrestle something onto the canvas, maybe an emotion, a memory, or just pure energy. I wonder what Shiraga was thinking, maybe of the Gutai group he co-founded, a collective that embraced performance and the raw act of creation. I think of Pollock too; but there’s something more… maybe even a kind of dance? That looping gesture makes me imagine his whole body was involved, swirling around the canvas, pushing the paint. I feel as if the painting wasn’t only looked at, but deeply felt and lived. That’s the kind of painting that gets me going; and I guess it did it for him too.