Shusaku Arakawa was active amid the anti-art movements of the early 1960s and, following his move to the United States in 1961, developed a distinctive artistic practice that sought to visualize processes of thought directly through painting. This exhibition marked the first presentation in Japan of works produced during the eighteen years since his departure for the United States.
Arakawa had previously participated in the Seibu Museum of Art’s inaugural exhibition, A View of Japanese Contemporary Art (1975). The Sezon Museum of Modern Art now holds a significant group of his works, including At the Window (1968), which was also featured in this exhibition, Gentle Friends (1985), and the extensive The Mechanism of Meaning (c.1963–1988), comprising 127 panels.