Shouting out aloud as he pressed his brush into the paper early each morning, forming his rugged kanji (Chinese ideograms) with a few dynamic strokes, tirelessly experimenting, ruthlessly destroying most of the day's work, then setting off patiently to teach at elementary school, Inoue Yūichi (1916-1985) embodies the self-discipline and experimental spirit of Japan's early postwar decades.

 

He became an autonomous actor in the Tokyo art world in the early 1950s, just when it was at last possible to discover exciting new movements and styles that were developing outside Japan: action painting, abstract expressionism, and the work of such artists as Franz Kline, Mark Tobey, and Jackson Pollock. Inoue experimented for a time with total abandonment of the conventions of sho (calligraphy) but reconciled himself to its linguistic essence in time to create a masterpiece for the fourth São Paulo Biennale (1957). In the early 1960s his style diverged from the heady international modernism of the mid-1950s and took a direction that was more culturally specific, without in any way abandoning his uncompromisingly severe artistic quest.

 

Inoue's achievement above all rests on his success in straddling West and East, in combining two visual languages-sho and abstract expressionism-to convey deeply felt inner conflict and anguish. The strokes of his kanji, sometimes so thick as to be more mass than line, explode onto the paper with a primal, visceral energy that cries out for our total attention. Shunning the delicacy and grace conjured up by the word "calligraphy," he often left things to chance, his use of the brush producing spatterings of ink that came to rest at random, to dramatic effect.

 

His utterly eccentric, wonderfully sparse sho creates a new world where clarity of meaning and intensity of emotion are fused into an integral whole. Following a major retrospective exhibition held in Japan in 2016, collectors and institutions around the world are currently showing intense interest in his dynamic compositions.

 

Selected Exhibitions and Life Events

1916  Born in Tokyo on February 14, the son of Inoue Eiji, a dealer in bric-a-brac.

1935  Graduates from Tokyo Prefectural Aoyama Normal School; appointed teacher at Yokokawa National School; starts to attend evening painting classes. 

1941  Begins to study calligraphy under Ueda Sōkyū. 

1945  On March 10, narrowly escapes death during a U.S. air raid on Tokyo. 

1948  Continues his study of calligraphy, mainly from the journal Sho no bi (Beauty of Calligraphy), edited and published by fellow-calligrapher Morita Shiryū. Marries Hirai Kikue (eldest daughter Hanako born in 1951; eldest son Tōru born in 1953). 

1950  In early spring, shows his calligraphy at the third Shodō Geijutsuin (Calligraphy Academy) exhibition at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; also shows at the official Nitten national exhibition. 

1952  Along with Morita Shiryū, Eguchi Sōgen, Nakamura Bokushi, and Sekiya Gidō, forms the Bokujinkai (Association of Men of Ink) group and becomes editor of its journal Bokujin

1954  Included in the exhibition Japanese Calligraphy (Museum of Modern Art, New York). 

1955  Included in the exhibitions Abstract Painting: Japan and the U.S. (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) and L'encre de Chine dans la calligraphie et l'art japonais contemporains (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; travels to Basel, Paris, Hamburg, Rome, and Tokyo). 

1957  Exhibits three works at the Fourth São Paolo Biennale. 

1958  Included in the exhibition 50 ans d'art moderne at the Brussels Exposition Universelle. 

1959  Exhibits at Documenta II, Kassel. 

1961  Stops using traditional nerizumi ink and creates a new medium made from dissolved carbon and water-soluble glue; exhibits at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture (Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh); participates in the sixth São Paolo Biennale. 

1962  Included in the exhibition Sinn und Zeichen: Kalligraphien japanischer Meister der Gegenwart (Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt). 

1963  Included in the exhibition Schrift und Bild: Kalligraphien japanischer Meister der Gegenwart (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; travels to Baden-Baden) 

1966  Participates in the First Japan Art Festival (Union Carbide Building, New York; travels to Chicago, Los Angeles, and Hawai'i). 

1969  Included in Contemporary Art: Dialogue Between the East and the West (opening exhibition at the new National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). 

1971  Publishes Hana no shochō (Album of Works with the Character Hana, Flower) the first of his calligraphy books; becomes principal of Asahi Elementary School, Samukawa Town, Kanagawa Prefecture. 

1973  Included in the exhibition Development of Post-war Japanese Art: Abstract and Non-figurative (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). 

1976  Retires after more than 41 years as a schoolteacher. 

1985  Dies on June 15. 

1989 - 1994  Ōkina Inoue Yūichi ten (Yu-Ichi Works 1955 - 85; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; travels to Fukuoka, Niigata, Yamaguchi, Ehime, and Fukushima). 

1993  Yu-Ichi: Subarashii hin (Yu-Ichi: Wonderful Poverty; Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, Tokyo) 

1994  Included in the exhibition Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky (Yokohama Museum of Art; travels to New York Guggenheim and San Francisco). 

1995  Tōkyō daikūshū (Tokyo Bombing; Sumida Riverside Hall, Tokyo). Yu-ichi 1916-1985 (Kunsthalle Basel). 

2000  Publication of final volume of Yu-ichi (Yu-ichi Inoue): Catalogue Raisonné of the Works, 1949-1985

2013  Featured at the 2013 Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates, curated by Hasegawa Yūko.

2014  Solo Exhibition Calligraphy by Inoue Yūichi, Erik Thomsen Gallery, New York