Sadamasa Motonaga

Untitled

ca. 1977

Sadamasa Motonaga is a Japanese abstract painter and a first-generation member of the Gutai avant-garde group. Born in 1922 in Mie Prefecture, Japan, initially Motonaga sought to be a cartoonist before turning his attention to western-style painting. In particular, after the dissolving of Gutai group in 1972, he pursued an original artistic trajectory. His paintings are characterized by a childlike sense of humor, and are drawn by simple lines and a gentle palette of nuanced primary colors, reminiscent of Japanese “Bokashi” Technique. He has often been accosted to Kazuo Shiraga as one of the most prominent figures in Japanese Post-War artistic world. In top of the many solo exhibitions and retrospectives, notable was the Motonaga/Shiraga Exhibition in 1984 at Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, and the retrospective in 2014 at Dallas Museum of Art. He was awarded the Légion d’Honneur from the French government and the Japanese Purple Ribbon Award, the first abstract artist to receive the latter.