Motonaga Sadamasa's "Work (Water)" at the Guggenheim Museum Rotunda

A new exhibition called "Gutai: Splendid Playground" recently opened at the Guggenheim Museum. The exhibition features gutai art. "Gutai" means concreteness in Japanese. In gutai art, the "human spirit and matter shake hands with each other, while keeping their distance." Part of the exhibit is Motonaga Sadamasa’s "Work (Water)" (1956) installation consisting of long, transparent plastic tubes filled with colored water suspended across the rotunda of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum. Motonaga Sadamasa was born in Japan in 1922. He was a painter and became part of the Gutai art movement. His paintings were characterized by the use of original technique of flowing colors on the canvas and are full of dynamic sense of life. In addition, Motonaga also created "performance art" using smoke, made objects of natural stones, and ‘water’ works. Such unique activities set him apart as a representative member of the “Gutai” group not only in Japan but also internationally. He has also lived in New York where he continued painting using air brush technique and device of spray. His works came to be characterized by the vivid colors and abstract forms with a humorous touch.The exhibit continues through May 8, 2013.