Shōzō Shimamoto

Born in 1928 in Osaka, Japan; dies in 2013 in Osaka, Japan.
Shimamoto is one of the founders of Gutai movement, developed in the Japanese Kansai region in 1954, together with Jiro Yoshihara, Akira Kanayama, Saburo Murakami and Kazuo Shiraga. In 1957 the Group creates the Gutai Stage Exhibition: for the first time a stage is used as a living artistic space in which works are created with the use of a cannon shooting little bags of paint (built by Shimamoto himself), for a performance enriched with sounds, helicopters, cranes and weapons. During the 1960s Shimamoto participates in several exhibitions regarding the Gutai movement in the most important galleries of the world. In 1972, the Group breaks-up and Shimamoto shows his interests for Mail Art and Networking Art developing a personal and particular idea of artist and artwork. During the 1980’s and 1990’s he realises many performances between Europe and the United States. In 1996 for his constant pacific activity against atomic bombs, he is proposed as a candidate for the Peace Nobel Prize. In 1998, he is chosen among the world’s four best artists of the post-war era, together with Jackson Pollock, John Cage and Lucio Fontana for an exhibition at MOCA in Los Angeles.