TOKYO.- BLUM announced the representation of the estate of Sadamasa Motonaga and the artist Etsuko Nakatsuji coinciding with their two-person exhibition, Afterimage of Memory, at BLUM Tokyo opening Friday, February 14. Solo exhibitions for the artists will follow in Los Angeles and New York.


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Partnered from 1960 until Motonaga’s passing in 2011, husband and wife pair Motonaga and Nakatsuji have jointly and individually made strides in the advancement of the postwar Japanese avant-garde practices for the better part of a century. A long-revered original member of the 1950s Gutai group, Motonaga is best known for his unique ability to express life’s pathos through the playful tenor of his vibrantly colored paintings, his experimentation with found materials, and his work on illustrated children’s books.

Working alongside Motonaga, Nakatsuji’s trajectory began as a full time graphic designer. She soon began experimenting by sewing objects from leftover bedspread fabric—the results of which were objets in human-like shapes, hanging from the ceiling of their apartment. These figurative works were her first poco-pins—a series that would come to set Nakatsuji’s practice apart from her contemporaries—evoking the immersive Surrealist installations of the 1920s, defying childish charm and instead possessing an organic mysticism that lies between the threshold of life and afterlife.

While both artists’ painting practices are primarily abstract, each engages human perception and the body in a profound manner. Motonaga’s later work, in its graphic orientation, possesses strong resonances with searching for an “ambivalent illusion of vision,” a theme that Nakatsuji also grappled with for decades. With Motonaga’s evolution into the representational and Nakatsuji’s return to painting, the two produced undeniably resonant work around the turn of the century.

Sadamasa Motonaga (b. 1922, Mie Prefecture, Japan; d. 2011, Takarazuka, Japan) was a pioneering figure in the Gutai Art Association (1955–71), a movement known for its radical and experimental approaches to artmaking. Motonaga’s early works featured cartoon-like, abstracted forms that soon gave way to his groundbreaking Water Sculptures—transparent vinyl bags filled with colored water that were suspended in space, interacting dynamically with light and gravity. These ephemeral installations exemplified Gutai’s ethos of material experimentation and performative art. By the late 1950s, he turned to fluid, gestural compositions created through poured and dripped pigments, establishing a visual language that paralleled international movements in abstraction while remaining distinctly his own.

His practice continued to evolve in the 1960s and 1970s, incorporating airbrush techniques, graffiti-like marks, and spray paint, blending the energy of postwar avant-garde aesthetics with an increasingly refined graphic sensibility. These later works often featured floating organic shapes, intense color gradients, and a sense of dynamic motion. Beyond painting, Motonaga authored and illustrated children’s books, extending his playful visual language into new realms. He was married to fellow artist Etsuko Nakatsuji from 1960 until his passing, and their artistic dialogue informed his later work, which explored perception and graphic abstraction.

Motonaga’s work has been the subject of numerous retrospectives, including at the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2015); Mie Prefectural Museum of Art, Tsu, Japan (2009); Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum, Nagano, Japan (2005); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan (2003); and the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan (1998). His work is represented in public collections worldwide, including the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan; Mie Prefectural Museum of Art, Tsu, Japan; Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Pinault Collection, Paris, France; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; among many others.

While Etsuko Nakatsuji (b. 1937, Osaka, Japan) studied art formally at Nishinomiya Art School, her career was shaped by both her independent practice and her work as a graphic designer at Hanshin Department Store. Nakatsuji’s artistic journey began with painting and evolved into the creation of her signature poco-pin—fabric objets she initially crafted from leftover bedspreads. These figures, defined by their simplified forms and playful yet uncanny presence, became central to her early installations. Her first solo exhibition at Tokyo Gallery in 1963 introduced audiences to these works, positioning her within the postwar avant-garde movement in Japan.

Though often working alongside her husband, Gutai artist Sadamasa Motonaga, Nakatsuji maintained a distinct artistic identity, drawing from the experimental ethos of Gutai while developing her own visual language. Over time, her practice expanded into painting, where she refined her investigations into human form, often reducing figures to geometric silhouettes. Her compositions evoke both corporeality and abstraction, exploring the body as a vessel and a symbol. Nakatsuji’s work has remained deeply engaged with themes of identity, perception, and psychological symbolism. Whether through fabric sculptures, illustrated books, or bold, minimal paintings, her art continuously challenges the boundaries between playfulness and the profound, reflecting a lifelong inquiry into the essence of human expression.

Nakatsuji’s work has been the subject of numerous retrospectives, including at BB Plaza Museum, Hyogo, Japan (2022); Takarazuka Arts Center, Hyogo, Japan (2021); Hyogo Guest House Prefectural Government Museum, Hyogo, Japan (2017); Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya, Japan (2000); and Itami City Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan (2002). Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan; Hyogo Guest House Prefectural Government Museum, Hyogo, Japan; Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan; Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City, Japan; Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design, Toyama, Japan; among others. She lives and works in Takarazuka, Japan.


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