"Six Decades" of Kazuo Shiraga at McCaffrey Fine Art

McCaffrey Fine Art is currently displaying Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga's first ever solo show in the US. The exhibition, titled "Six Decades," shows paintings by the distinguished artist who uses the style of "foot painting" in his work.

A style often associated with artists who cannot use their hands (or whose hands have been amputated or otherwise destroyed), Shiraga says he first experimented with this method in order to go beyond (the already complex) style of Abstract Expressionism. He has used foot art since the 1950s (hence the title of the exhibition).

The avant-garde artist sought inspiration from Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Yves Klein and Jackson Pollock during the 50s - but developed his own unique methods of placing large sheets of paper on the floor, then sliding, spinning, and swirling his feet into heaps of boldly colored oil paint and letting his feet and mind create masterful paintings.

Although the artist's work has been included in various museums' surveys of Japanese Art throughout the United States in the past few decades, he has remained largely unknown in the American Art World until now. The current exhibition at McCaffrey Fine Art also accompanies the first in-depth publication on Shiraga's work in English.



To read more about the artist, his influences, and past exhibitions, click here.

Pollock's first break

Jackson Pollock was lucky enough to have Peggy Guggenheim visit his studio early on in his career. After a few studio visits Guggenheim invited him to have his first solo exhibition in November 1943.

The exhibition was held at Art of This Century and featured fifteen oil paintings and an unrecorded number of works on paper, all completed between 1941 and 1943. The exhibition included important works such as Guardians of the Secret, The Mad Moon-Woman, Male and Female, The Moon Woman, and The She-Wolf, plus gouaches and drawings. Prices ranged from $25 to $750. The show is the first solo exhibition by an American artist at Art of This Century gallery.

Guggenheim also gave Pollock his first commission, a mural for the entrance hall of her East 61st Street town house. Pollock had to tear down a wall in his apartment to accommodate the twenty-foot-large canvas. When it was installed in Guggenheim’s home, it was a hit.