Gozo Yoshimasu
New Dear Monster, 2022
Mixed media on paper
51.5 x 35.5 cm | 68.5 x 58.5 x 4 cm, framed
Active since the early 1960s, the avant-garde poet and multimedia artist Gozo Yoshimasu blurs the lines between literature, art, and performance. Done in ink, paint, and other materials on paper, the works from his “New Dear Monster” (2022) series are simultaneously manuscripts, richly textured painterly compositions, and performance scores. These works are being presented in public for the first time.
© Gozo Yoshimasu, Courtesy of Take Ninagawa, Tokyo Photo by Kei Okano
Born in Tokyo in 1939, Gozo Yoshimasu is one of Japan’s preeminent contemporary artists. Active since the 1960s, the avant-garde poet and multimedia artist seeks to recover and reinvent the shared roots between poetry and performance. Often incorporating diverse languages and literary references that he picks up on his travels around the world and in his correspondences with other writers, Yoshimasu’s poems turn the Japanese language into a machine for generating new meaning, as reflected in the collage-like appearance of his manuscripts. He has also created his own video practice, gozoCiné, combining video with spontaneous poetic composition and readings.