Hamao Hamada (Japanese, 1915-1994) and
Shozo Kitadai (Japanese, 1921-2003)
APN
INV-2622
Hamao Hamada (Japanese, 1915-1994) and
Shozo Kitadai (Japanese, 1921-2003)1954
photographyphotograph
Date
1954
Medium
Gelatin silver prints (2)
Dimensions
30.5 × 22.2 cm (12 × 8 3/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Grant J. Pick Purchase Fund
Two photographs capture different aspects of a kinetic sculpture. One shows the mobile at rest, while the other illustrates the mobile moving frenetically, its metal appendages creating bright arcs of light. Kitadai Shōzō’s longstanding interest in light and movement began during his time with Jikken Kōbō, a collective of Japanese interdisciplinary and performance artists that he cofounded in 1951. Fellow member Yamaguchi Katsuhiro described Jikken Kōbō as the “Bauhaus without a building.” These pictures resulted from a collaboration between Kitadai and the surrealist painter Hamada Hamao.