Minoru Onoda

Minoru Onoda was born 1937 in Manshu, North-East District, China (Japanese-occupied Manchuria Jilin Province, China). He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts, Osaka, Japan from 1956 to 1958 and from 1958–1960 at the Osaka School of Art (currently Osaka College of Art). He lived most of his life in Himeji, Japan where he died in 2008.

After publishing his "Paintings of Propagation' theory in 1961 and participating in the 3rd International Exhibition for Young Artists in Paris in 1964, Onoda Minoru joined Gutai and stayed faithful to their leader Yoshihara Jiro's motto to "do what has never been done before" for the rest of his career. The Gutai Group was the first radical artistic movement after World War II in Japan. This influential group was involved in large-scale multimedia environments, performances, and theatrical events and emphasizes the relationship between body and matter in pursuit of originality.

Through newly-available materials and artistic freedom post WWII, Onoda questioned new forms, styles and hierarchy through lines and circles.

Awed by manufacturing concepts of repetition and quantity, he chose amalgamations of gradually-sized dots on panel with relief, creating organically-growing shapes, progressing to infinite circles and finally monochrome painting where the edge matters.

During his lifetime Onoda chose to sell primarily to museums and institutions. His paintings have been extensively exhibited in Japan and were included in the major retrospectives: "Gutai, The Spirit of an Era", National Art Center Tokyo, in 2012 and "Gutai : Splendid Playground” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2013.

A Monograph on the artist containing 232 pages and over 170 photographs was published in 2019 by Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie through the publisher Scheidegger & Spiess- English and Japanese editions (ISBN 978-3-85881-821-8, 978-3858818225)

At the occasion of the major retrospective at the Himeji City Museum of Art, Seigensha published a second monograph on the Gutai artist Minoru Onoda with 432 pages. All essays are in both Japanese and English (ISBN 978-4-86152-829-3).

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, NL

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, JP

Himeji City Gallery, Himeji, JP

Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, Ashiya, JP

The Miyagi Museum of Art, JP

HOLE・CUT・LIGHT, Nissan Corporation, Himeji, JP

Literature monument of Rinzo Shiina, Himeji, JP

Himeji City Hall, Himeji, JP

Himeji Kohryo Junior High School, Himeji, JP

Art Kite Museum, DE

Private collections in Japan, US, UK and Switzerland

• Website about the work of Minoru Onoda
• Article in the Financial Times with picture, June 17, 2017
• Article in Hyperallergic, June 17, 2017

• Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie AG - Monograph on 'Minoru Onoda' with 232 pages and over 170 photographs, published by Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich ISBN 978-3-85881-821-8 (English version) and ISBN 978-3-85881-822-5 (Japanese Version)
• Alexandra Munroe and Ming Tiampo - Gutai: Splendid Playground, published by Guggenheim Museum Publications, New York ISBN 978-0-892-07489-1
• Ming Tiampo - Gutai: Decentering Modernism, published by University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-80166-7, 978-0-226-80166-7
• Onoda Minoru no sekai ten : gendai kyōdo sakkaten, Catalog of an exhibition held at Himeji Shiritsu Bijutsukan, Jan. 9-30, 2004
• Art Kites: Pictures for the Sky/Kunstdrachen. Bilder für den Himmel, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1989