This exhibition reveals a significant historical lens of the Japanese Art Informel movement that formed the baseline of Whitestone Gallery’s 1967 foundation, and aligned with our core motto “Art as a Voice for Peace.”

This inaugural exhibition focuses on the raw, tactile intensity of the main masters of Art Informel in Japan, Hisao Domoto and Toshimitsu Imai. As Japan’s leading interpreters of Europe’s Art Informel ("Art Without Form") movement, both artists challenged conventional artistic structures and constructed new language of abstraction. 

Centered on the material and gestural force of Hisao Domoto and Toshimitsu Imai’s practices, the exhibition explores how this European-originated abstract movement, coined by French critic Michel Tapié in 1950, became important in Japan through a historical lens. Emerging from the disillusionment of post-WWII Europe, Art Informel rejected the rational, geometric abstraction of the era in favor of raw intuition, improvisation, and pure painterly freedom. In the 1950s, Domoto and Imai relocated to Paris, where they immersed themselves in the intellectual orbit of this movement. By incorporating Eastern philosophies and aesthetics into dialogue with European Art Informel, they forged a powerful cross-cultural artistic exchange that expanded the possibilities of global abstract expression.

In this sense, Art Informel was more than an artistic movement; it became an intercultural exchange shaped by perception, emotion, and material expression. Emerging from the aftermath of war, it is a universal language of suffering, resilience, and rebirth. Their paintings bear witness to confront the profound human cost of war while reminding us of the enduring values of empathy, peace, and our shared humanity. 

By reflecting on this history, the exhibition also encourages us to reconsider violence and war in relation to the contemporary world.