
Gelatin silver print, 45.2 × 55.8 cm, 1950s
SGON_BX3501

Gelatin silver print, 55.9 × 45.2 cm, 1950s
SGON_BX0224

Gelatin silver print, 45.6 × 55.7 cm, 1950s
SGON_BX0112

Gelatin silver print, 50 × 45.5 cm, 1950s
SGON_BX0334

Sumi, color on paper, 96.5 × 69.2 cm, n.d.
SGON_TB_766

Sumi on paper, 366.2 × 168 cm, n.d.
SGON_TB_608

Sumi, color on paper, 54.5 × 68.5 cm, n.d. (Late 1950s – Late 1988)
SGON_TB_003

Shigeru Onishi was born in Takahashi city, Okayama prefecture in 1928. He was quite precocious and as a junior high school student, his difficult questions would often stump his teachers. There are also accounts that he eagerly studied the I Ching divination manual. He entered Hokkaido University to study topology and graduated in 1953 but stayed to study mathematics. He worked on his theoretical mathematical treatise, A Study of Meta-Infinite, which can also be considered his life work. It was at this time that he began photography in an attempt to demonstrate his mathematical theories in art. Although he was a self-educated photographer, he was familiar with a variety of photographic and photo development techniques such as multiple exposure, development processing with brushes and sponges, discoloration due to particular developing agents, film processing, color tone changes due to manipulation of the development temperature and others. He utilized these techniques to achieve experimental results that were beyond his intention.
During this time, there was travelling exhibition that had come to Tokyo, titled The First International Subjective Photography Exhibition (1956). The exhibition focused on the Subjektive Fotografie movement centered around the German photographer, Otto Steinert but also included Japanese artists like Onishi. The following year, Onishi’s photographs were introduced in a special feature for Subjectivist Photographs, called A Special Number Atelier: New Photography, with other major artists in the movement. But the mathematical propositions fundamental to Onishi were beyond the scope of photography. As Onishi continued his theoretical mathematical treatise, his artistic medium shifted and he started to produce large scale abstract ink paintings.
Although Onishi’s abstract ink paintings were widely introduced from the 1950’s to the 1970’s throughout Europe, he did not keep the company of international art circles. He stayed in his hometown in Okayama prefecture and continued his mathematical research and continued the production of his art works until his passing.
(K.I.)
1 Shigeru Onishi, The Goal of Drawing, Photo 35, 1957, July
【Publication】
Shigeru Onishi
A Metamathematical Proposition
Edited by Manfred Heiting
Text written by Ryuichi Kaneko
192 pages, 195 images
Hardback 23 × 28 cm
English / Japanese
Published by Steidl
More information>>>