The document discusses the career of Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga and argues he was overlooked by the New York art community for decades. Though Shiraga pioneered a unique painting technique using ropes and his feet in the 1960s, his work received poor reviews in his first New York show and was not collected or exhibited by major museums and galleries. However, in recent years Shiraga has gained recognition, with prominent exhibitions and inclusion in top auction sales. The document suggests other Asian artists like Yayoi Kusama and the Dansaekhwa movement from Korea also experienced underappreciation but have since risen in prominence, indicating the New York art scene may have overlooked important Asian contemporary artists from the 1980s to

1. WERE ASIAN
CONTEMPORARY
ARTISTS
OVERLOOKED?
JEFF GREENSTEIN
Kazuo Shiraga painting in his studio, 1960
© Amagasaki Cultural Center; Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey

2. In early 2010, we
saw our first
painting by the
Japanese artist
Kazuo Shiraga. We
were blown away by
the intensity, the
beauty, and the
technique he used to
paint: swinging by a
rope and painting
with his feet.
Kazuo Shiraga painting in his studio, 1960
© Amagasaki Cultural Center; Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey

3. Equally stunning
was that we had
never heard of
the artist or
seen any of his
creations in a
museum, private
collection, at an
art fair, or in a
contemporary
art auction.

4. We posed this question to Fergus
McCaffrey, who represents Shiraga’s
estate and runs a leading New York gallery.
image: http://fergusmccaffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/locations-ny.jpg

5. McCaffrey theorized that for
decades Shiraga, along with
other select Asian artists, had
been overlooked or panned by
New York’s art community,
especially the curators at top
museums, leading galleries,
and prominent critics.

6. Shiraga’s and the Gutai
group’s first New York
show in 1958 was derided
as being derivative of
second or third-generation
Abstract Expressionism,
rather than applying a
fresh perspective to that
movement’s first and
second-generation artists.
© The Estate of Kazuo Shiraga;
Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey

7. Before technology and
globalization, the
market for those artists
not embraced by the
New York art
community at the time
was meaningfully
different than those
that were.

8. McCaffrey postulated that Shiraga
would be reevaluated once serious
collectors saw the artist’s work and were
able to contextualize it among that of his
peers. In relatively short order,
McCaffrey’s belief proved prophetic:
Western collectors and museums have
finally come to embrace Shiraga.

9. Shiraga has recently, and
prominently, been featured in
major exhibitions at the
Guggenheim Museum and the
Dallas Museum of Art, has had
solo shows at three important
New York galleries, and is
regularly featured in the top
contemporary art auctions
around the world.

10. Was Shiraga’s imposed anonymity an isolated
situation, or indicative of other potential
opportunities for important Asian artists?

11. Yayoi Kusama: a
Japanese artist known
for her Infinity Nets,
sometimes provocative
sculptures, and large-
scale installations.
Kusama spent time in
New York during the
1960s with the
prominent artists of
the day, returning in
1973 to her native
Japan, where she has
remained ever since.

12. Consistent with the period, her early works were
intensely painted but minimalist in nature—but
distinctively hers. Kusama was certainly better
known globally than Shiraga; however, her
works, in our opinion, were also dramatically
underappreciated and therefore, undervalued.

13. Her stature globally has
exploded in recent
years, including a major
retrospective that has
traveled to the Tate
Modern, Whitney, Reina
Sofia, and Centre
Georges Pompidou.
Capping Kusama’s well-
deserved meteoric rise
was her inclusion in
Time magazine’s 2016
list of the 100 Most
Influential People.
© Yayoi Kusama; Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey

14. Following this trend, but still in the
relatively early days, are the
Korean artists constituting the
Dansaekhwa, or “monochrome
painting movement.” The
movement emerged in South Korea
during the 1970s as a response to
the political and cultural upheaval
the country was facing at the time.

15. In the short time since their
introduction, the demand and
esteem for their works and
techniques have ballooned.
While there has yet to be a
major museum show, significant
collections have been built at
top museums and private
collections around the world.

16. Greenstein Lab's
experience with
important Asian
artists, who were
overlooked by the New
York scene from 1980
to 2010 and are now
deeply favored and
collected vigorously,
has proven rewarding
on multiple levels.

17. W W W . G R E E N S T E I N L A B . C O M