'Ay-O: Over the Rainbow Once More is a large-scale retrospective exhibition looking back on more than fifty years of the career of one of the foremost Japanese avant-garde artists, Ay-O (born 1931), known as ‘The Rainbow Artist’. In the 1950s, Ay-O joined the Demokrato Artists Association, which was formed in criticism of existing art groups. His avant-garde activities have since continued to this day, crossing a variety of mediums, from two-dimensional oil paintings and prints to so-called ‘environments’, or installations that involve their surrounding environments and appeal to their viewers’ five senses. By reviewing the artist’s career, this retrospective presents a reconsideration of the rich diversity of Ay-O’s expression, which stems from a voracious spirit of experimentation.

'Born in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1931, Ay-O, together with On Kawara and others, joined the Demokrato Artists Association—an artists’ association formed around EiQ, an avant-garde artist who represents postwar Japan—in 1953, and attracted attention with the works he presented in such exhibitions as the Demokrato Exhibition and the Yomiuri Independent Exhibition. He also became acquainted with the art critic Sadajiro Kubo around this time, which led him to become more active in printmaking. Prints were still considered to be a lower art form than such mediums as oil painting and sculpture at this time. Ay-O contributed to moving prints onto the center stage of artistic expression, along with other Demokrato members such as Masuo Ikeda, and the medium eventually came to hold an important position in his work. In 1958, Ay-O traveled and relocated to New York, with a strong admiration for Marcel Duchamp and Jackson Pollock at heart. There, he joined the avant-garde art movement ‘Fluxus’, led by George Maciunas, and took on the challenge of working with a variety of different forms of expression. As a Fluxus member, he participated in performances by creators from different fields such as artists and musicians, known as ‘events’, and created works with the new concept of ‘multiples’ which made them available to a greater number of people. He also made installations known as ‘environments’ and many other works that could be directly touched and experienced by viewers. Finally, he rebelled against the concept of creating works consisting of lines, instead filling his motifs with the colors of the spectrum, from red to violet. Ay-O’s struggle with the rainbow was expressed in a variety of genres including prints, paintings, and installations, bringing him international renown as ‘The Rainbow Artist’.' (from the website of Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art)

様々な表現メディアを横断する前衛的な創作活動で知られる靉嘔（あいおう・1931〜）。1950年代に既存の権威主義や美術団体を批判して結成されたデモクラート美術家協会に参加し注目を集めた後、1958年に渡米し、ジョージ・マチューナスが主唱する前衛芸術運動フルクサスに参加しました。ニューヨークでの創作活動を通して靉嘔は様々な表現に挑戦します。美術家や音楽家、詩人といった異なるジャンルの表現者たちが交わる「イヴェント」と呼ばれるパフォーマンスへの参加や、希少性を排除して多くの人が手にすることの出来る「マルティプル」作品の制作、「エンヴァイラメント」と呼ばれる周囲の環境を取り込んだインスタレーションなどを次々と発表します。そして、線で描くことや構図を用いるという表現手法から脱却し、色相による表現に目覚めると、光のスペクトルの順にストライプで描く手法に取り組みました。絵画や版画、立体などの多様なメディアに虹色を重ねる作品を生み出し、「虹のアーティスト」として国際的に評価されるようになります。

本展は、代表的な虹のシリーズの作品をはじめ、観客が直に体験できるインスタレーション、世界各地で行ったパフォーマンスやイヴェントのドキュメントなどの展示を通して、これまでの活動の全容を辿るとともに、靉嘔の前衛精神を紹介します。