Tsuruko Yamazaki

Tsuruko Yamazaki (山崎 つる子, Yamazaki Tsuruko; 1925 – June 12, 2019) was a Japanese artist, known for her bold artistic experiments with abstract visual styles and non-traditional materials. She was a co-founder and the longest-standing female member of the Gutai Art Association, an avant-garde artists' collective established by Jirō Yoshihara.

Yamazaki was born in 1925 in Ashiya, Hyōgo, Japan. In 1947, she attended a three-day summer art workshop directed by Yoshihara. Impressed by Yoshihara's radically novel approach to art, Yamazaki began studying with him and eventually became a member of Gutai upon its establishment under his leadership.

Yamazaki had been an active member of the Gutai group since its founding in 1954. She regularly participated in Gutai's Outdoor Exhibitions, performance events, and Gutai Art Exhibitions. As Gutai gradually garnered interest in the international art world, Yamazaki showed her works at Martha Jackson Gallery, New York (1958) and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1965). Later she showed with the former Gutai members at the 45th and 53rd Venice Biennale (1993 and 2009). Her first solo exhibition was held in 1963 at the Gutai Pinacotheca, the exhibition space of Gutai opened by Yoshihara in 1962. She later received solo exhibitions at Ashiya City Museum of Art and History (2004), Galerie Almine Rech in Paris (2010), and Take Ninagawa in Tokyo (2013 and 2015).

Yamazaki remained a member of Gutai until its dissolution in 1972. Her artistic creation continued to evolve afterwards, exploring styles and motifs inspired by Pop Art. She died of pneumonia on June 12, 2019, at the age of 94. She is credited for being a "pivotal figure in the Japanese avant-garde movement."

Yamazaki was known for her daring use of saturated colors and abstract visual languages. She was also interested in unconventional materials like tinplate, mirrors, and vinyl. Eschewing figurative and literal representations, her early works often highlighted the specific chemical and physical properties of these materials, responding to Yoshihara's assertion that: 'Gutai Art does not alter matter [...] Gutai Art does not distort matter. In Gutai Art, the human spirit and matter shake hands with each other while keeping their distance. Matter never compromises itself with spirit; spirit never dominates matter.'

Reflective materials played a significant role in Yamazaki's early works. At 'The First Gutai Art Exhibition' in 1955, Yamazaki displayed Tin Cans, a sculpture made from stacking some 25 tin cans on the floor of the exhibition space. The artist recycled the cans discarded by American servicemen in Osaka and varnished them fluorescent pink. Reflecting, tinting, and distorting the surroundings, the pile of pink tin cans captured the mesmerizing visual shock brought by Western consumer goods, urbanization, and technological development in post-war Japan.  The blurry reflections on the surface of the tins also viewers to contemplate the physical space.

At the same exhibition, Yamazaki also exhibited Work (1955), a large iron panel covered by black and white stripes. At the four edges of the panel, Yamazaki mounted small rectangular mirrors, which reflected viewers’ bodies and the exhibition space in fragments. The uninterrupted reflection challenged viewers to reconsider the very act of 'viewing' and viewing subjects' taken-for-granted control over art objects.

In another work, Three-Sided Mirror (1956), Yamazaki again used pink tinplate. The work consisted of thirty-six sheets of tinplate, which were assembled into three enormous reflective panels like a triptych mirror. Exhibited at the Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition at Ashiya Park, the striking color of the tin triptych disrupted the harmonious greenery of the park. On its slightly dented surface, the reflection of surrounding trees and passers-by deformed into eerie and barely recognizable shapes. Like a funhouse mirror, the work reframed and defamiliarized the world to challenge viewers' habitual perception of it.