McCaffrey Fine Art is proud to present the first solo exhibition of the work of the late Jiro Takamatsu (1936–1998) in the United States. Featuring large-scale examples of Takamatsu’s celebrated Shadow Paintings, this exhibition provides an opportunity to encounter one aspect of the diverse achievement of the most influential artist working in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s.
Takamatsu’s inquiries into the philosophical and material origins of painting and sculpture saw him prosper in the fertile ground between Dada, Surrealism, and Minimalism. In working in this way, he adopted an anti-illusionistic truth to materials that remained the backbone of his artistic vision over a forty-year period.
Takamatsu first achieved artistic notoriety as a member of Hi Red Center in actions carried out in Tokyo between 1962 and 1964 that sought to eliminate the boundary between art and life. In 1964, he began making Shadow Paintings (which he continued until the end of his life) that were a critical inquiry into the formal origins of painting—an act of anti-art that paradoxically uncovered expressive depth in abundance.