Special ExhibitionNOBUYA ABE 1913-1971: Insatiable Quest beyond Borders

Nobuya Abe (1913-1971), an artist from Niigata, leaped into the spotlight at a young age through his collaboration with Shuzo Takiguchi on a book of poems and pictures entitled Yosei no kyori [Fairy’s Distance] (1937). He also eagerly contributed works and critiques to magazines and played a significant role in the avant-garde photography movement before World War II. From 1941, he was assigned to the military press section, where, besides producing posters and photographs at the front in the Philippines, he did many sketches. His artistic style changed bewilderingly after the war from Surrealism to Art Informel and geometric abstraction. He submitted his works to numerous international exhibitions such as the Bienal de São Paulo. Moreover, applying his natural language skills, he took part in international conferences and was active beyond the domestic boundary of Japan. He spent almost ten years late in life in Italy. While producing his own works, he also made an effort to introduce foreign artistic trends and his broad-ranging activities continued to have an influence on the Japanese art world.

In this exhibition, in addition to major works from his early period to his later years, through relevant materials such as magazines, photographs, and sketches and works by other Japanese and foreign artists who had connections with Abe, we shall trace the footsteps of this border crosser who continued to traverse not only countries and regions but genres and fields, too.

Exhibition flyer（PDF:1.2MB）

Nobuya Abe’s Circle of Friends

Ben Shahn, Lucio Fontana, Aiko Miyawaki, and Tomonori Toyofuku.

Some of the Artists included in An Exhibition of Contemporary Italian Paintings (1965) Produced by Nobuya Abe

Lucio Fontana, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Enrico Castellani, Piero Dorazio, Antonino Virduzzo,
Mario Schifano, Giuseppe Uncini, Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, and Otto Piene.