Jirō Yoshihara was not a conceptual artist in the strict sense. His key work was not an object but the Gutai movement as a way of thinking. He believed that art emerges from direct contact between the human and matter. His circles are not symbols or images, but traces of a single gesture and moment of action. Yoshihara anticipated conceptualism by shifting focus away from representation and ideas toward process, act, and event, where form becomes a document of action rather than a carrier of meaning.
White Circle
Jirō Yoshihara was not a conceptual artist in the strict sense. His key work was not an object but the Gutai movement as a way of thinking. He believed that art emerges from direct contact between the human and matter. His circles are not symbols or images, but traces of a single gesture and moment of action. Yoshihara anticipated conceptualism by shifting focus away from representation and ideas toward process, act, and event, where form becomes a document of action rather than a carrier of meaning.