Boxing Painting, Feb. 16th, 2009-A

Pow! Wham! Boff! Contemporary artist Ushio Shinohara punched this canvas with boxing gloves dipped in indigo paint to deliver a volley of irregular blotches, drips, and splashes. The abstract pattern moves from a hail of jabs at right, to a double row of punch and counterpunch at left. A powerful example of his action-based art, Boxing Painting embodies Shinohara's aesthetic doctrine: "Be speedy, beautiful, and rhythmical."

Born in 1932, Shinohara was an important member of the post–World War II Japanese avant-garde. In 1958 he launched the Anti-Art (Han-geijutsu) movement focusing on ephemeral projects using found materials, or junk. Between 1960 and 1964 he occasionally demonstrated his commitment to speed and action by striking large pieces of hemp or paper with rag- or glove-covered fists dipped in ink—the early "boxing paintings," none of which he preserved. After a twenty-seven-year hiatus, during which the artist turned to other art forms, he was invited to take up his gloves again for an exhibition in Osaka in 1991. Often produced during public events attended by the media, his current "boxing paintings" use canvas and colored acrylic paint to create permanent records of his fists' forceful contact with the fabric. Since 1969, Shinohara has lived in New York with his wife, the artist Noriko Shinohara. Their lives are chronicled in a recent film, Cutie and the Boxer.