NEW YORK, NY.- It is with great sadness that Alison Bradley Projects shared the news of the passing of the artist Tadaaki Kuwayama.

Kuwayama’s achievement and influence in the American Minimalist movement was vast, quickly gaining notoriety after his move to the United States alongside wife and fellow artist, Rakuko Naito, in 1958. Establishing himself as an active member of the avant-garde in New York, Kuwayama was befriended by Kenzо̄ Okada, Sam Francis, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Frank Stella. His first solo show was held at Green Gallery in 1961, run by art dealer Richard Bellamy. Kuwayama’s striking work was included in many landmark exhibitions, such as Vormen van de Kleur (Forms of Color), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Systemic Painting, the emblematic exhibition organized by art critic Lawrence Alloway at the Guggenheim, both in 1966. He has been the subject of countless solo and group exhibitions around the world, and his work is included in the collections of institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Foundation for Constructivist, Concrete and Conceptual Art in Zürich, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. His contributions to painting at large cannot be understated, as he investigated space, color, and surface in new and enlightening ways. Kuwayama did not simply create paintings, but works that command presence, contemplation, and awe. In his words, “I wanted to make pure art without history.”

To say he will be missed does not fully capture the depth of this loss to the art world and to those who were lucky to know and love him. Rather than offer much explanation, he allowed the viewer an all-encompassing spatial and visual experience. We are extending our heartfelt condolences to his beautiful family, friends, wife and life partner, Rakuko, at this time.

Born in 1932 in Nagoya, Japan, Tadaaki Kuwayama graduated from the Japanese Painting course at Tokyo University of the Arts where he found himself uninterested in both the rigid traditional nihonga apprentice system as well as the contemporary Japanese art scene in Japan of the time. He moved to New York in 1958, along with his young wife, the painter Rakuko Naito, where they have been living and working ever since. After his 1961 solo exhibition at Green Gallery, the prominent vanguard gallery run by eccentric art dealer Richard Bellamy, Kuwayama began making monochromatic acrylic paintings in geometric forms, becoming a pioneer of what became known as the American Minimalist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The artist turned his back on the abstract, and gesture based painting style of the era, beginning to pursue another style of “pure abstract” painting alongside other young artists of his generation. Donald Judd, then an art critic, was an early advocate of Kuwayama and followed his career noting his contribution to the emerging form of what would later be termed Minimalism.

Kuwayama’s oeuvre can be understood as spanning several periods, marked in part by his use of different materials. Until 1962, when he had his second solo exhibition in the United States, he produced paintings using Japanese mineral pigments and acrylic solvent on boards wrapped in Japanese paper. After that, the artist used acrylic paint until around 1969; then he turned to metallic paints through the 1970s; and oil in the 1980s. But since the 1990s, Kuwayama has made space itself his work. His globally acclaimed works display no subjective expression—they are intended as pure art and provide an immersive experience in the viewing space.

Kuwayama’s artistic journey has extended over half a century.