# Kazuo Shiraga artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/kazuo-shiraga/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T18:06:25.067Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1924-08-12
- Death date: 2008-04-08
- Nationality: Japanese
- Movements: Gutai Art Association, Abstract art, Postwar Japanese avant-garde
- Common media: Painting, including foot-painted canvases, Performance art, Three-dimensional objects, Conceptual art and installations

## About Kazuo Shiraga

Kazuo Shiraga (1924–2008) was a Japanese painter and performance artist associated with the first generation of the Gutai Art Association. Born in Amagasaki, he trained in Nihonga before turning toward experimental practice after World War II. In 1952 he co-founded Zero-kai with Saburo Murakami and Akira Kanayama; the group merged with Gutai in 1955. Shiraga is especially identified with a physically demanding form of painting made by applying and moving paint with his feet. This method rejected conventional brushwork and made bodily action central to the work's creation. His broader practice encompassed performance, three-dimensional objects, conceptual projects, and installations, some known chiefly through photographs or film. Collectors encounter his abstract paintings most often, while museums and scholars place them within Gutai's wider exploration of material, gesture, and direct action in postwar Japanese art.

## Common works and media

Works encountered in appraisal and auction contexts include abstract paintings, works on paper, prints, mixed-media objects, sculpture, and editions. Shiraga is best known for paintings created through direct bodily action, particularly canvases worked with his feet. His wider experimental practice also included performances, conceptual projects, three-dimensional objects, and installations, although some ephemeral works survive principally through documentary photographs and films. Medium, date, dimensions, inscriptions, and documentation should be established before selecting comparable lots.

## Market and appraisal context

A Kazuo Shiraga appraisal should begin with closely comparable works rather than a general artist-level price. Medium, dimensions, date, condition, restoration, provenance, exhibition history, catalogue references, signatures, and attribution confidence can all distinguish one result from another. For paintings, the integrity and treatment of the heavily worked surface deserve particular attention. Public auction records can help establish context, but reported totals may not use identical fee conventions, and private transactions or later attribution changes may be absent. Comparables should therefore be matched by work type, scale, period, condition, and documentation before any value conclusion is drawn. Edition information should also be checked when assessing prints or other multiples.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with matched public auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Public records are evidence for comparison, not a substitute for object-specific authentication, condition review, or appraisal judgment.

## Sources

- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/38972
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1421445
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/96604213/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500125013
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/031438369
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Shiraga
- Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Shiraga
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/kazuo-shiraga/