Gutai’s spectacular rise—and potential fall

The seemingly unstoppable rise of post-war Japanese art has been one of the major art- market success stories of the past ten years. Despite a history of engagement with Europe and the international art scene, the Gutai Art Associationfounded in Osaka in 1954 by Jiro Yoshihara (1905-72)had, until relatively recently, created few ripples in the art market. Pioneers in the combination of performance and plastic arts, the Gutai group presaged many of the developments that would come to define post