PARIS ¨C ¡°Do what no one has done before,¡± was the rallying cry that Jiro Yoshihara, founder of the postwar Japanese art group the Gutai Art Association, demanded of his fellow members.
A work by one of the group¡¯s important painters, Kazuo Shiraga, fulfilled the edict last week, selling at auction on June 4 for €1,665,500 (?215,965,000) ¡ª more than twice its estimated price ¡ª and breaking the artist¡¯s previous auction record, set shortly after his death in 2008.
Painted in 1961, ¡°Chiretsusei Katsusemba,¡± a canvas thick with rich, dark red and blue paint, applied with the artist¡¯s body and carrying traces of his movements, was offered by Christie¡¯s Paris as part of a group of works including that of Gutai artists from the collection of Parisian gallerist Rodolphe Stadler.
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