"Technique will change to free and wild action, and it ignites my passion. Passion turns into action, and it fills my flaming heart." (Kazuo Shiraga)

Kazuo Shiraga was born in Japan in 1924, and reached adulthood in the aftermath of World War II. He saw Japan's old ways of doing things disappear as a result of its defeat in the war. Trained in traditional Japanese painting at the Kyoto City Specialist School of the Arts, he soon began to experiment with Western styles.

In 1952, he joined other local artists in forming the Zero-kai group, which held the belief that every work of art begins from nothing. He later became a member of the Gutai Art Association, an important avant-garde movement established in...