At the first sight of the works of Kazuo Shiraga, a Japanese artist, I can’t appreciate it and get much information that the artist tries to convey to me. Because I am used to appreciating portrait oil paintings that depict concrete materials such as nuances of facial expressions, and body language. However, I admit that his work indeed gives me a visual impact because of the color matching, just as Kazuo Shiraga once said, “My complete work is not for someone to appreciate. It should have the impact of a blow.”
Unlike a variety of artists, Kazuo Shiraga breaks the traditional channels of abstraction. A wide range of paintings that he made was about his feet when hanging from a rope linked to the studio’s ceiling that he possessed. After putting the canvas that he painted on the ground, the artist would utilize a suspending string on the top in order to keep balance. After a period of time he would speed up his actions, that is to way, he would pivot very fast. He seems to be blessed by a dancer, and it is worthy of mentioning that the performance of the painting is as gorgeous as the completed paintings.
Actually, it is after experimenting with various forms of expressions, such as knives, spatulas, and his fingers that he finally decided to paint with his feet. As far as I am concerned, this form of expression with feet requires not only a great sense of appreciation for the aesthetics, but also accomplished dancing ability. To some extent, it’s more challenging to create a piece of stunning painting, compared with other forms of expression.
Maybe someone would say I can also paint with my feet, but he never reaches the point that his painting is highly recognized and appreciated, in other words, it’s just scribbles drawn quickly and roughly. So why is the work of Kazuo Shiraga is aestheticized and emotional and where is the beauty embodied? In fact, Shiraga’s foot paintings could be boiled down to a more direct, more violent struggle between body and material, and he was making no stones unturned to gain freedom all his life.
Of course, Kazuo Shiraga deserves to be highly acclaimed for he once swore to never copy anyone, and he did.
All the paintings are brilliant, and every artist is worth to be memorized forever, I have obtained some thoughts of how to draw a fantastic paintings although I do not really know how to paint. Those pictures were reminiscent of a variety of things that happened before. For instance, I have done the same things that Kazuo Shiraga did, to suspend a rope, however, I did not paint anything, I just did it for fun.
