Source:http://visualarts.walkerart.org/detail.wac?id=4388&title=Current%20Exhibitions&style=images
Tetsumi Kudo was born on February 23rd, 1935 in Osaka, Japan. Tetsumi Kudo studied oil painting at and graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts in 1958. He was first noticed at the Yomiuri Independents exhibition. In 1962, Kudo emigrated to France and lived there for the next 25 years. After his return to Japan, Kudo taught at Tokyo Art University from 1987 until his death in 1990. His strong concern for the human body, which he shows through his often grotesque work, bears many implications for modern society. We should, for example, react to his series which address the issue of radioactivity and environment. Tetsumi Kudo died of cancer on November 12, 1990 in Tokyo, Japan.
Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo came of age in the 1950s as Japan was dealing with the trauma of postwar military occupation and the postatomic. Kudo’s ideas about a “new ecology” critiqued the West’s dualistic way of pitting humanity against nature and technology.
Kudo’s first in-depth exposure in the United States is an exhibition of 26 derisively beautiful, macabre works whose hybrid forms often blend human body parts with plants and flowers. They range from the mid-1960s to the late ’80s, with a concentration on the 1970s. Kudo’s sculptures and reliefs are not unfamiliar. They fit into a neo-Dada tradition that includes , Daniel Spoerri, , Lucas Samaras and Paul Thek. They update Surrealism (and ) with the psychedelic colors of hippies and Pop.
Tetsumi’s art is very original and it one few artists I have found that explore the theme of pollution and nature. His originality of his themes and the authentic method in which he illustrates them has really inspired me to explore my theme with the use of any material; whether it be dirt, sand or real snail shells, I don’t have to be limited to the materials in my art room.
