| Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art

Life and Work

Funakoshi is considered a leading name in the field of visual arts in his country. Funakoshi's father was also a sculptor and soon he felt the same vocation. He studied in the University of Art and Design, from 1971 to 1975, and in the University of Fine Arts and Music, from 1975 to 1977. He started carving in camphor wood, in 1980. His works, usually depicting human figures from the waist up, have a great poetical effect, and are striking and distinctive. Funakoshi works this material in a personal way and leaves visible both the grain of the wood and the marks of carving. The artist carefully utilises the grain for modelling and leaves part of the head unpainted, normally the crown.

He has exhibited his work at the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennale, the Documenta IX, and the Shanghai Biennale, and his work is represented in several art museums in Japan and other countries.

Biography

1951	Born in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan
1971 – 1975	Studied Sculpture at the Tokyo Zokei University, Art and Design
1984	Awarded Excellence Prize 'Oyama-City with Sculpture'
1991	Awarded Takashimaya Charitable Trust for Art and Culture Prize
1995	Awarded the 26th Nakahara Teijiro Prize for Excellence
1997	Awarded the 18th Hirakushi Denchu Prize

Works (Selection)

Katsura Funakoshi, Drawing No. 1111, 2011

Katsura Funakoshi, Drawing No. 1105, 2011

Katsura Funakoshi, Panther going back to the City, 2002

Katsura Funakoshi, Dancing as a pupa (Homage to a dancer), 2001, © Katsura Funakoshi

Katsura Funakoshi, Untitled (DR 01 01), 2001

Katsura Funakoshi, The Words of Winter, 1997

Katsura Funakoshi, Irregular Caesuras, 1993

Katsura Funakoshi, The Book half read, 1990

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2020	Katsura Funakoshi: dancing as a pupa, Beck & Eggeling, Dusseldorf, DE
2016	Funakoshi Katsura: The Sphinx in Myself, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Tsu, JP Katsura Funakoshi, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, FR
2015	Katsura Funakoshi: Sculpture and Drawing, Galerie Albrecht, Berlin, DE Katsura Funakoshi, Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, DE
2014	Drawings by Funakoshi Katsura, Ando Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2012	Suzaka Hanga Museum, Nagano, JP Menard Art Museum, Aichi, JP
2011	Recent Sculptures and Drawings, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
2010	Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JP Katsura Funakoshi, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, JP
2008	Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JP Katsura Funakoshi: New Sculpture, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, US Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, JP Katsura Funakoshi, Ando Gallery, Tokyo, JP Tohoku University of Art and Design, Yamagata, JP
2007	Galley Art Composition, Tokyo, JP
2006	Cité Du Livre, Aix-en-Provence, FR Katsura Funakoshi: New Sculpture, Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2005	Katsura Funakoshi. A Map of Time, Annely Juda Fine Art, London Tokyo Zokei University, Zokei Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2004	Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, JP
2003	Katsura Funakoshi Works: 1980-2003, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, JP

Group exhibitions (selection)

2018	50 Years 50 Artists, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
2015	40 Years plus, Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2014	Nishimura Gallery 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2013	Zokei University Museum / Gallery Saoh & Tomos, Tokyo, JP Re: Quest –Japanese Contemporary Art since the 1970s, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Corée, Tokyo, JP Toward Holiness, The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, JP Six Solo Exhibitions, The Bonds between us, Karuizawa New Art Museum, Nagano, JP
2012	The Magic of Ceramics ~Artistic Inspiration, The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga, JP The Story of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, JP The Power of Japanese Contemporary Sculpture, AKI Gallery, Taipei, TW When to Be Free, Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, JP The Power of Three-dimensional Shape, Sapporo Art Museum, Sapporo, JP
2011	I wanna hold you! Modern Japanese Wood Sculpture: 19th century-, Takaoka Art Museum / Hekinan City, Takaoka, JP Released from the Procession, Gallery Saoh, Tokyo, JP Graphics, Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2010	Nobuyoshi Araki and Katsura Funakoshi “An Image of Love Supreme”, Takahashi Collection, Hibiya, Tokyo, JP
2009	35th Anniversary: Seven, Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JP Hundred Stories about Love, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, JP
2008	Self / Other, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, JP Form from Warmth of the Wood and Play, Nerima Art Museum, Nerima City, Tokyo, JP DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow, The National Art Center, Tokyo, JP Inspiration from Buddha sculpture, Kodaira Hirakushi Denchu Art Museum, Kodaira, Tokyo, JP
2007	Vital Signs: Reality of nine contemporary artists, Yokosuka Museum of Art, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, JP Forest of the 20th Century Art, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya, JP
2005	Katsura Funakoshi Ernst Barlach: A Map of the Time, Ernst Barlach Haus, Hamburg, DE
2004	Time of My Life, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, JP Art in Wood, Gunma Museum of Art, Tatebayashi, Gunma, JP
2003	Yasutake Funakoshi and His Family, Morioka Takuboku and Kenji Museum, Morioka, JP The Presents from the Artists, Niigata City Art Museum, Niigata, JP
2002	Sculptors of Eastern Japan, Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo, JP Beauty of Tohoku, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima, JP
2001	Between Earth and Heaven, Museum of Modern Art, Ostende, BE
2000	Expo 2000 Hannover, Pavilion of the Holy Sea, Hanover, DE

EXHIBITIONS AT BECK & EGGELING (SELECTION)

#BEduesseldorf

Katsura Funakoshi: dancing as a pupa

Dusseldorf / 7 October 2020 – 16 January 2021

#BEduesseldorf

Works from a private collection – from Bourgeois to Valdés

Dusseldorf / 24 November 2023 – 27 January 2024

Publications

STRANGE BEAUTY

Artists: Rania Akl, Gehard Demetz, Gerhard Altenbourg, Susanne Kühn, Nikos Aslanidis, Roger Ballen, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Bertozzi & Casoni, Herbert Beck, Louise Bourgeois, Joachim Brohm, Jewgeni Chaldej, Lucien Clergue, Heribert C. Ottersbach, Lorenza Diaz, Joachim Elzmann, Katsura Funakoshi, Marianna Gartner, Wolf Hamm, Aspassio Haronitaki, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Hoehme, Leiko Ikemura, Monica Ursina Jäger, Lia Kazakou, Julia Kissina, Jürgen Klauke, Daecheon Lee, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz, Robert Longo, Robert Lucander, Xavier Mascaró, Richard Mosse, Hartmut Neumann, Chris Reinecke, Katharina Schilling, Norbert Schwontkowski, Valentina Seidel, Norbert Tadeusz, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Miriam Vlaming, Stefan à Wengen, Robert Wilson, Thomas Wrede
Editor: Ute Eggeling, Michael Beck
Text: Charles Baudelaire, Kirsten Nordahl
Design: Beck & Eggeling (Antonia Eggeling, Martina Löhle)
German, English
Softcover, 24 x 20 cm
128 pages, 115 illustrations
Beck & Eggeling Kunstverlag, 2017
ISBN 978-3-94606312-4
20 €

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