Jiro Takamatsu 1936-1998
Jiro Takamatsu (b. 1936, Tokyo - d. 1998, Tokyo) explored concepts related to perception, space, and objecthood through a range of mediums, including sculpture, photography, painting, drawing, and performance art. Takamatsu nurtured an interest in mathematics and physics, especially quantum mechanics, as evident in his early “point” and “string” works, which meditate on the relationships among elementary particles, investigating the ways in which they are at once material and immaterial, tangible and imaginary, present and absent.
Takamatsu has exhibited widely in Japan and internationally, including at the 5th and 6th Paris Biennials (1967, 1969); the 34th Venice Biennale (Japan Pavilion, 1968), where he won the Carlo Cardazzo Prize; EXPO ’70, Osaka, Japan (1970); the 12th São Paolo Biennale (1973); and Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany (1977), among others.
He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions posthumously at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, United Kingdom (2017); the Royal Society of Sculptors, London (2019); the National Museum of Art, Osaka (1999); Chiba City Museum of Art (2000); Fuchu Art Museum, Tokyo (2004); and Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka (2004).
The artist’s work is held in prestigious public collections worldwide, including Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Museum of Art, Osaka; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, among others.