Nobuo Sekine Biography
Nobuo Seike was born in 1942 in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. After earning a BFA in Painting from Tama Art University in 1968, studying with the artists Yoshishige Saito and Jiro Takamatsu, he became an important central figure of the Mono-ha movement in international exhibitions. The Mono-ha school, whose name can be literally translated as "school of things", was a fundamental artistic movement in the formation of post-war Japanese modern art. In 1968, Sekine Nobuo composed the work Phase-Mother Earth, which is generally regarded as the beginning of the movement and one of the most iconic works of art of this period in Japan, influencing the future development of earth art, installations and of minimalism in Asia. Sekine Nobuo's artistic experiments manifest the tranquility of Zen philosophy through the theories of topology (study of the properties of space). By arranging things to continuously change shape while maintaining its natural quality, he seeks to reveal the intrinsic quality of things through different perspectives which, in turn, question the interrelationship between things and the audience during change. His compositions range from large-scale earthworks, to installations of natural and industrial materials, space-specific life-size sculptures, and flat-surface works that explore the materiality of pictorial mediums. Sekine Nobuo represented Japan at the 35th Venice Biennale with the Phase of Nothingness series in 1970 and subsequently participated in biennials in France, Japan and Korea. In 2001, his works were included in the Century City exhibition at Tate Modern to honor his contribution to modern Japanese art. Among his important exhibitions: Parallel Views: Italian and Japanese Art from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, The Warehouse, Dallas, TX, US, 2013; Prima Materia, Punta Della Dogana, Venice, 2013; Tokyo 1955-1970: a new avant-garde, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, 2012; Reconsidering Mono-ha, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, 2005; Phase of Nothingness — Black, toured Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, from 1978 to 1979. His works are collected by public institutions, such as Hara Museum in Tokyo, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Kawagoe City Art Museum, National Museum of Art in Osaka, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Louisiana Museum in Denmark, Kröller-Müller Museum in Holland, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in the USA.
