Yutaka Toyota

Yutaka Toyota (Tendo, Japan, 1931)

Yutaka Toyota was a painter, sculptor, draftsman, engraver, and set designer. In the early 1950s, he attended the Tokyo University of Art in Japan. He moved to Brazil in 1962 and, the following year, received awards at the 2nd Salão do Trabalho in São Paulo and the 12th Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna. Between 1965 and 1968, he lived in Milan, Italy, where he met designer Bruno Munari (1907-1998). In 1969, he won an award at the 10th São Paulo International Biennial. In 1964, he held his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio Grande do Sul (MAM/RS). In 1965, he won an award at the 1st Esso Salon of Young Artists, and in 1968, he received awards at the 2nd Bahia Biennial of Visual Arts in Salvador and the Santo André Salon in São Paulo. That same year, he participated in the 12th Seibi Salon in São Paulo.

From the 1970s onward, he began creating sculptures for public spaces and buildings, both in Brazil and abroad, including Praça da Sé (1978) and the Maksoud Plaza Hotel (1979) in São Paulo, as well as Toyotomi Park in Hokkaido, Japan (1979). In 1973, he had a solo exhibition at the Kyoto Museum of Modern Art, and in 1974, he exhibited in the exhibition Japanese Artists in the Americas at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art. He participated in the Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM/SP), in 1972 and 1985, winning an award in the first edition. In 1991, he was elected best sculptor by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA), in São Paulo.

Critical Commentary

In the early 1960s, Yutaka Toyota's paintings and drawings tended toward informalism with "Zen Buddhist" resonances, reflected in the use of circular forms, according to art historian Walter Zanini. In Gray Abstraction (1963), the recurring circular form appears superimposed on a horizontal strip and filled with a rectangular one. This superimposition creates the sensation that the circle projects outward, toward the viewer; the greenish-gray background becomes lighter around the circle, reaffirming this sensation and adding volume. Despite the constant presence of geometric shapes, the gesture that gives rise to them is perceptible, and therefore Toyota's work can be understood within the informal trend.

The works "Infinite Negative Space" and "In-Yo Space," both from 1969, seem to comment on op art, although they already foreshadow the artist's later phase, in which geometry and gesture separate to give greater space to perceptive illusion—"In-Yo Space" rests on a concave mirrored base. According to Zanini, this shift in Toyota's work is due, above all, to his contact with the Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari (1907-1998). In the late 1960s, Munari produced geometric sculptures structured like complicated paper folds, a solution also present in Toyota's "Metamorphosis Space," in which the balance of the metal's weight is maintained through meticulously structured points and planes.

In the following years, Toyota focused primarily on producing sculptures designed for large spaces. While gestures are no longer present, replaced by the precise contours that characterize aluminum works, flexibility and rhythm persist. In "Cosmic Space Resonance" (1978), the reflection in the modulated metal dialogues with its surroundings. Both Zanini and Munari, in texts on Toyota's work, draw attention to the deformation through the reflection the artist creates, both in the relationship between the work and the environment and in the work itself, between juxtaposed forms in which one reflects the other—as is the case with "Cosmic Space" (1979). It is also worth highlighting the alternation between filled and open planes, responsible for the rhythm of most of the works.

Critiques

"(...) more than any other Japanese-Brazilian artist, he clearly inserts himself into an internationalizing context, and produces a work where, in my view, East and West converge. His language brings together diverse trends—especially European ones—of the last twenty years. At its core is a constructive, disciplined consciousness that seeks the objective and clear organization of forms—and which already represents, in itself, one of the facets also existing in the Eastern soul. (I've always been impressed by the 'design' lesson that is the Japanese flag itself; and it's worth remembering the stripped-down simplicity of 'Zen' gardens, in their own way a pure expression of minimalist art.) Against this constructivist backdrop, Toyota superimposes his taste for optical games, a virtual kineticism—occasionally current—the surrender to highly sophisticated and asepsis industrialized materials, and, in his most recent work, the concept of 'open opera.' Without being strictly 'mobiles', his latest reliefs, in enameled wood, admit the interference of natural forces, or manipulation by the viewer".
Olívio Tavares de Araújo
TOYOTA, Yutaka. Yutaka Toyota. São Paulo: Renato Magalhães Gouvêa Escritório de Arte, 1978. Unpaginated.

"Yutaka Toyota painted in Japan in the Impressionist style; but here in Portugal (since 1962), after a stay in Argentina, he joined the informal movement that brings Zen Buddhist influences (using circular forms). Three years of living in Milan, familiarity with Bruno Munari's (1907) research on instrumentation, and interaction with several other artists profoundly altered his aesthetic vision, stemming from the very need to begin expressing himself through sculpture as an environmental creation. The volumes he constructs in aluminum, precisely modulated, exclude rigidity and poetically refer to the search for different spatial existences on their surfaces that reflect and deform the surroundings, constituting for the artist the very apprehension of the world. A symbolic aura, therefore, surrounds these structures where they resist Eastern values".
Walter Zanini
ZANINI, Walter (org.). General History of Art in Brazil - II, São Paulo: Instituto Walther Moreira Salles: Fundação Djalma Guimarães, 1983. p.688.

"In Japan, he painted figuratively, especially landscapes, developing his personal style of symbolic abstract painting here in Brazil. In São Paulo, he developed a connection with Hookekyo Buddhism, whose concepts considerably influenced his worldview and art. In his painting, Toyota associates the cosmic and the human, with an immanentist feeling that fuses spiritual anguish with the intrinsic dynamism of matter and links human hope to a sense of spatiality. He lives intensely the hallucinatory tension of our time and the tragedy of humanity coerced and crushed by alienating social conditions. He yearns for a world of peace and unlimited expansion of the human personality. The almost obsessive desire to escape coercion and the search for vast spaces are the hallmarks of his magnificent paintings of recent years. (...) The circle is Toyota's fundamental symbol. A multivalent symbol of the world of energy, peace, and humanity, which conveys the crushing of alienation and the liberating expansion. His paintings always contain circles, Buddhist mandalas, 'worlds' small' worlds of anguish and 'big worlds' of hope and cosmic integration".
Mário Schenberg
SCHENBERG, Mário. Thinking about art. São Paulo: Nova Stella, 1988.

Solo Exhibitions

1957 - Tokyo (Japan) - Solo Exhibition, at the Matsuya Gallery
1961 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo Exhibition, at the Velázquez Gallery
1963 - São Paulo, SP - Solo Exhibition, at the Ambiente Gallery
1964 - Porto Alegre, RS - Solo Exhibition, at the MAM/RS
1964 - São Paulo, SP - Solo Exhibition, at the São Luiz Museum
1965 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo Exhibition, at the Goeldi Gallery
1965 - Rome, Italy - Solo Exhibition, at the D'Arte della Casa do Brasil Gallery
1966 - Milan, Italy - Solo Exhibition, at the D'Arte Il Quartiere delle Botteghe Gallery
1967 - Bergamo, Italy - Solo Exhibition, at Gallery 2B
1967 - Brescia (Italy) - Solo exhibition at Sicron Gallery
1967 - Milan (Italy) - Solo exhibition at Il Grattaciello D'Arte Gallery
1968 - Lago Maggiore (Italy) - Solo exhibition at M5 Gallery
1968 - Lecco (Italy) - Solo exhibition at Stefanoni D'Arte Gallery
1968 - Milan (Italy) - Solo exhibition at M5 Gallery
1969 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at Copacabana Palace Gallery
1969 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at Mirante das Artes Gallery
1970 - Bogotá, Colombia - Solo exhibition at San Diego Gallery
1970 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at Bonino Gallery
1970 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at Gallery Astréia
1971 - Medellín (Colombia) - Solo exhibition at the Zea Museum
1971 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at the Ipanema Gallery
1971 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at the Documenta Gallery
1971 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at the Eucatexpo Gallery
1972 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at the Grupo B Gallery
1972 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at the Astréia Gallery
1972 - Washington, DC (United States) - Solo exhibition at the Pan-American Union
1973 - Brasília, DF - Solo exhibition at the Hotel Nacional Gallery
1973 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at the Vernissage Gallery
1973 - Tokyo, Japan - Solo exhibition at the Marukyu-Matsukaya Gallery
1975 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at the Gallery Contemporary
1975 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at Galeria A Ponte
1976 - Brasília DF - Solo show, at Galeria Oscar Seráphico
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo show, at Galeria Bonino
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at Renato Magalhães Gouveia Escritório de Arte
1979 - Tokyo (Japan) - Solo show, at Galeria Takashimaya
1979 - Yamagata (Japan) - Solo show, at Galeria Onuma
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo show, at Galeria Bolsa de Arte
1982 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Solo show, at Galeria Tempora
1982 - Cali (Colombia) - Solo show, at the Terturia Museum of Modern Art
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo show, at Galeria Bonino
1983 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Solo show, at the San Diego Gallery
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at the Choise Gallery
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at the Skultura Gallery
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo show, at the Anna Maria Niemeyer Gallery
1986 - Japan - Solo show, at the Oishi Fukuoka Gallery
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo show, at the Anna Maria Niemeyer Gallery
1987 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at the Paulo Figueiredo Gallery
1990 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at the Kate Art Gallery
2001 - São Paulo SP - Sculptures, paintings, at the Caixa Cultural Complex
2002 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at the Multiple Art Gallery

Group Exhibitions

1963 - Curitiba PR - 20th Paraná Fine Arts Salon, at the Public Library of Paraná
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - Gold Medal
1963 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Work Salon, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas - 1st Prize
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1965 - Washington DC (USA) - Esso Salon of Latin-American Artists - Pan American Union - 2nd Prize in Painting
1966 - São Paulo SP - Japanese-Brazilian Artists, at MAC/USP
1967 - Milan (Italy) - Quartiere delle Botteghe - Piazzeta Prize
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1968 - Belo Horizonte MG - 23rd Belo Horizonte Fine Arts Salon, at MAP
1968 - Campinas SP - 4th Contemporary Art Salon of Campinas, at MACC
1968 - Curitiba PR - 25th Paraná Salon, at the Public Library of Paraná
1968 - Salvador BA - 2nd National Biennial of Visual Arts, at MAM/BA - State Government Prize
1968 - Santo André SP - 1st Contemporary Art Salon of Santo André, at Paço Municipal
1969 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal - Banco de Boston Prize / Acquisition - Itamarati
1969 - São Paulo SP - 19 Japanese-Brazilian Artists, at MAC/USP
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1970 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Brazilian Cultural Mission
1970 - Cali (Colombia) - 10th Cali Art Festival - Special Room
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th JB Art Summary, at MAM/RJ
1971 - Antwerp (Belgium) - 11th Middelheim Sculpture Biennial
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Eletrobrás Art Salon, at MAM/RJ
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Multiples Exhibition, at Petite Galeria
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Eletrobrás Art Salon, at MAM/RJ
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th JB Art Summary, at MAM/RJ
1972 - São Paulo SP - 4th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP - MAM/SP Object Prize
1972 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Multiples, at Multipla de Arte
1972 - São Paulo SP - Arte/Brasil/Hoje: 50 Years Later, at Galeria da Collectio
1974 - Toronto (Canada) - Twelve Brazilian Artists, at the Museum of Modern Art
1975 - Basel (Switzerland) - Four Brazilian Artists
1975 - São Paulo SP - 7th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1978 - Penápolis SP - 3rd Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Sculpture in Urban Space: 50 Years, at Praça Nossa Senhora da Paz, Ipanema
1978 - São Paulo SP - 10th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1978 - São Paulo SP - 3 Generations of Japanese-Brazilian Artists, at Galeria Arte Global
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 1960s, at MAB-FAAP
1980 - Penápolis SP - 4th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters - Guest Artist
1981 - Guarujá SP - Outdoor Sculpture, at Hotel Jequitimar
1981 - Osaka (Japan) - Japanese and Latin-American Contemporary Art, at Osaka Museum of Art
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Brazilian Artists of the 1960s and 70s from the Rubem Knijnik Collection, at Espaço NO Galeria Chaves
1981 - São Paulo SP - 13th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1982 - Bauru SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1982 - Marília SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters
1982 - São Paulo SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MAB-FAAP
1982 - São Paulo SP - A Century of Sculpture in Brazil, at Masp
1983 - Belo Horizonte MG - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at Fundação Clóvis Salgado, Palácio das Artes
1983 - Campinas SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MACC
1983 - Curitiba PR - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at the Museum of Contemporary Art
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1983 - Santo André SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at Santo André City Hall
1984 - Fukushima (Japan) - Renowned Northern Artists, at Fukushima Museum of Art
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters
1985 - São Paulo SP - 16th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Japanese Artists in the MAC Collection, at MAC/USP
1987 - São Paulo SP - 19th São Paulo International Biennial
1987 - São Paulo SP - 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1988 - Belém PA - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts, at Fundação Rômulo Maiorana
1988 - Brasília DF - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts
1988 - Curitiba PR - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts, at MAC/PR
1988 - Manaus AM - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts, at the State Pinacoteca
1988 - Porto Alegre RS - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts, at Margs
1988 - Recife PE - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts, at Fundação Joaquim Nabuco
1988 - São Paulo SP - 19th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo SP - 80 Years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil, at Masp
1988 - São Paulo SP - Group Exhibition, at Skultura Galeria de Arte
1988 - São Paulo SP - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts, at MAB-FAAP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Kaiatakusha – Pioneers of Japanese-Brazilian Art, at Caesar Park Hotel
1988 - São Paulo SP - Life and Art of Japanese in Brazil, at Masp
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Japanese Heritage: Aspects of Japanese-Brazilian Visual Arts, at MNBA
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1991 - Recife PE - Group Exhibition, at Escritório de Arte Guilherme Eustáchio
1991 - São Paulo SP - From Chaos to Cosmos, at Skultura Galeria de Arte
1993 - São Paulo SP - Aviation and Art, at Congonhas Airport Cultural Space
1993 - São Paulo SP - Luso-Japanese-Brazilian Exhibition, at MAB-FAAP
1993 - São Paulo SP - Works for the Illustration of the Literary Supplement: 1956–1967, at MAM/SP
1993 - São Paulo SP - Portugal-Japan: Navigated Seas, at MAB-FAAP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Brazil 20th Century Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1995 - Brasília DF - Seven Samurais of Brazilian Art, at LBV
1995 - Niigata (Japan) - Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese-Brazilian Painters, at Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art
1995 - Tokushima (Japan) - Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese-Brazilian Painters, at Tokushima Cultural Center
1996 - Gifu (Japan) - Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese-Brazilian Painters, at Museum of Fine Art Gifu
1996 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese-Brazilian Painters, at Masp
1996 - Tokyo (Japan) - Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese-Brazilian Painters, at Azabu Art Museum
1997 - Jacareí SP - Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese-Brazilian Painters, at Oficina de Artes Santa Helena
1997 - São Paulo SP - Diversity of Contemporary Brazilian Sculpture, at Avenida Paulista
1997 - São Paulo SP - Four Matters, at Skultura Galeria de Arte
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Japan-Brazil International Traveling Exhibition, at Fundação Clóvis Salgado, Palácio das Artes
1998 - Ipatinga MG - Japan-Brazil International Traveling Exhibition
1998 - São Paulo SP - Lines and Forms, at Jo Slaviero Galeria de Arte
1999 - Brasília DF - Japan-Brazil International Traveling Exhibition, at Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1999 - São Paulo SP - Japan-Brazil International Traveling Exhibition, at Masp
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Sculpture: From Pinacoteca to Jardim da Luz, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo SP - 29th Bunkyo Salon, at Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture
2001 - Porto Alegre RS - Liba and Rubem Knijnik Collection: Contemporary Brazilian Art, at Margs
2001 - São Paulo SP - Four Decades, at Nova André Galeria
2001 - São Paulo SP - Japanese-Brazilian Art: Moments, at Galeria Euroart Castelli
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Drawings, Prints, Sculptures, and Watercolors, at Garagem de Arte
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilianart Project, at Almacén Galeria de Arte
2004 - São Paulo SP - Gesture and Expression: Informal Abstraction in the JP Morgan Chase and MAM Collections, at MAM/SP