Natsuyuki Nakanishi 1935-2016
Natsuyuki Nakanishi (b. 1935, Tokyo - d. 2016, Shizuoka) began his artistic career with the critically acclaimed painting series Rhyme, which earned him the Shell Art Prize in 1959. In 1963, he founded the artist group High-Red Center with Jiro Takamatsu and Genpei Akasegawa, engaging in happenings that transcended the boundaries of conventional artistic practice. Alongside his radical actions, he continued to examine philosophical and phenomenological questions concerning the essence of painting through several series of canvases with a distinctive palette and idiosyncratic mark-making.
Nakanishi held solo exhibitions at numerous museums, including The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (1997); Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi (2002); Shoto Museum of Art, Tokyo (2008); Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Chiba (2012); Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai (2022); The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, Kanagawa (2025); and The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2026). His works have also been shown in notable group exhibitions, such as Japanese Art After 1945: Scream against the Sky, Yokohama Museum of Art, Guggenheim Soho, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1994); and Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013).
Nakanishi’s works have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., the Warehouse, Dallas, Long Museum, Shanghai, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the National Museum of Art, Tokyo, the National Museum of Art, Osaka, among many others.