Collection: もの派

Reconsidering the relationships between objects, places and viewers.

Stone, earth, wood, iron and paper: Mono-ha questioned relationships between familiar materials and space, becoming a significant current in postwar Japanese art. This collection introduces works by Nobuo Sekine and other artists associated with Mono-ha, alongside their backgrounds.

What is Mono-ha?

Mono-ha is an art movement that developed in Japan from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Using natural materials and industrial products, its artists focused on materials’ inherent qualities and relationships arising through contact. It was not a formally constituted group with shared rules, but a term for the practices of artists with different ideas.

From making forms to discovering relationships

In Mono-ha, weight, mutual support, distance and location matter. Combining and placing materials, and acting on a site, reveals relationships between things and between things and people. One attraction is the opportunity to perceive familiar substances and spaces anew through one’s own senses.

Questions opened by Nobuo Sekine’s 《位相－大地》

In 1968, Nobuo Sekine presented 《位相－大地》 at Suma Rikyu Park in Kobe. A cylindrical hole was dug in the ground, with the excavated earth piled beside it as a corresponding cylinder. Digging and moving earth revealed relationships between space and matter. The work became an important catalyst for Mono-ha, while Lee Ufan’s reflections supported its theoretical development.

Artists associated with Mono-ha

Mono-ha was not an organization with membership or a unified manifesto. Nobuo Sekine, Lee Ufan, Kishio Suga, Susumu Koshimizu, Katsuro Yoshida and Katsuhiko Narita, as well as Koji Enokura, Noboru Takayama and Noriyuki Haraguchi, are important to discussions of the movement and its surroundings. Each developed a different expression through an engagement with materials and space.

• 関根伸夫: 《位相－大地》 (1968) provided an important catalyst for Mono-ha. Changes in form and appearance became ways to explore how objects and space are perceived.
• 李禹煥: The 《関係項》 series combines stone, iron, glass and other materials to question relationships between things and places. The artist’s writing also supported Mono-ha’s theoretical development.
• 菅木志雄: Placing, arranging and bending wood, stone and metal became ways to explore relationships between materials, places and people, focusing on situations created by the placement of things.
• 小清水漸: In the 《かみ》 series, paper and stone highlight contrasts in lightness, weight and surface texture. Engaging with materials’ qualities, the artist continues to question what sculpture is.
• 吉田克朗: Works such as 《Cut-off No.2》, using timber and steel plate, reveal combinations of materials and the effects of gravity. Experiments including transfer techniques later led to painting.
• 成田克彦: Known for the 《SUMI》 series using charcoal. Later working in two-dimensional formats as well, the artist continued experimenting with different forms and materials.
• 榎倉康二: While associated with Mono-ha, the artist independently explored contact between body and matter. Phenomena such as permeation and bleeding extended into painting, photography, prints and installation.
• 高山登: Railway sleepers, iron, wax and other materials were used to explore their strong presence and relationship to surrounding space. Alongside large installations, the artist also made prints and drawings.
• 原口典之: Industrial materials such as waste oil and metal connect matter with its surrounding environment. In 《オイル・プール》, people and landscapes reflected on the oil’s surface also become part of the experience.

Also,高松次郎 influenced Sekine and others through earlier experiments with vision and existence, and through teaching at Tama Art University. This practice is essential to understanding the background to Mono-ha’s emergence.

Reference sources:国立国際美術館「もの派―再考」、国立新美術館「李禹煥」、岩手県立美術館「菅木志雄展」、ピノー・コレクション《Paper》、神奈川県立近代美術館「吉田克朗展」、東京造形大学「成田克彦」展、東京国立近代美術館「榎倉康二」、宮城県美術館「高山登展」、横須賀美術館「原口典之・若江漢字」。

Nobuo Sekine’s subsequent practice

Nobuo Sekine (1942–2019) was born in Saitama Prefecture. After studying at Tama Art University and its graduate school, the artist participated in the Japan Pavilion at the 1970 Venice Biennale. Alongside sculpture, painting and prints, the practice extended to art in public spaces and landscape.

This section introduces Mono-ha’s historical activities and the artists’ later individual practices through their dates and contexts. The listed 《G6-203 裏返るトーラス》 (1989) is a mixed-media work by Sekine made after Mono-ha’s formative period. Please also consider each work’s materials, composition and surface.

Sources for the commentary

• 国立国際美術館「もの派―再考」
• 三重県立美術館: glossary entry on “もの派”
• 東京文化財研究所「関根伸夫」
• 豊田市美術館「関根 伸夫」
• 国際交流基金: 35th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition