1 素材と道具と造形：1963年までの立体作品
毛利武士郎は1943年に東京美術学校彫刻科を卒業後、1944年2月に応召し、宮古島の野戦病院で終戦をむかえました。マネキン制作会社への勤務等で生計をたてながら、1951年の第3回読売アンデパンダン展に《小さな夜》（1951年頃、所在不明）を出品しました。当時は発表の場として公募団体展が支配的であった中で、無審査、無償、無条件の自由形式の展覧会は、新しい表現が育まれる舞台となりました。
1954年の第6回展では、アフリカの東海岸で古代魚のシーラカンスが発見されたという記事から感銘を受けた、抽象的で量感のある《シーラカンス》（1953年）を出品し、新しい彫刻の方向を示唆する作家として注目されます。《シーラカンス》制作の翌年には《テクノロジー》（1954年）を発表する等、この時期は、一作ごとに大きく形態を変えながら、現代社会等へのアレゴリーを含むような作品が制作されました。
美術批評家の東野芳明によれば、毛利は「発想と造形が、もののなかで不可分に結びつき、動いてゆくのが、彫刻だと思う*1」と、よく口にしていたといいます。また、ある対談では、素材について一種の変貌というものが必要で、その変貌と作家の意図がうまく符合したときに作品が成り立つとも語っています*2。毛利の作品の多くが石膏を用い、時には石や金属を素材としています。それら素材の必然性を前提としながらも、石膏が石膏であること、金属が金属であることを超えて一つの表現として現前するとき、人々に作品世界への夢想や探求を可能とさせるのかもしれません。
一方で、毛利にとって素材を扱う道具も重要です。1963年の「世界近代彫刻日本シンポジウム」（神奈川県足柄下郡真鶴町）での大規模な野外石彫制作で、ドリルを使用したときに征服感を体験したことから次のように述べています。「かつて人類というものは、ものを作る、作業する、という時に、持てる最大、最高、最新の武器を駆使して、これまで常に作業して来たと思うのです。（中略）素材に取り組む時の芸術的な意図も、さることながら、それに伴なう作業こそ、最も厳しい素材との対決なわけですから、それを如何に克服するか、ということは道具と無関係ではないと思うのです*3。」
文：尺戸智佳子
*1 東野芳明「《明日を創る人-11》無言の抵抗」『芸術新潮』第10巻第11号、1959年11月号
*2「作家・批評家 素材・反絵画・彫刻」『美術手帖』第172号、1960年4月号増刊（対談：毛利武士郎、東野芳明）
*3「特集15 座談会 現代日本の美術の底流 戦後美術 彫刻に課せられた問題－一九六三年の動きをめぐって－」『美術ジャーナル』第45号、1963年11、12月合併号（座談会：三木多聞、水井康雄、毛利武士郎、司会 針生一郎）
1 Material, Tool and Form: Works Until 1963
After graduating from the sculpture department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (present day Tokyo University of the Arts) in 1943, Bushiro Mohri was drafted into the army in February 1944. He was in a field hospital in Miyako Island when World War II ended. While earning a living working for a mannequin production company, he presented A Little Night (c.1951, whereabouts unknown) in The 3rd Yomiuri Independent Exhibition in 1951. At the time, public art exhibitions through open calls organised by membership-led art organisations were the dominant form of presenting new work for artists. Therefore, this so-called Yomiuri Independent, an annual exhibition of which had no selection panels and no application charge or conditions, became a stage that nurtured new forms of artistic expressions.
For The 6th Yomiuri Independent in 1954, Mohri presented the abstract and voluminous Coelacanth (1953), which was inspired by an article about the discovery of the ancient fish coelacanth on the east coast of Africa. This work led him to be noticed as a promising artist who suggests a new direction for sculptures in Japan. In the year following the creation of Coelacanth, he produced Technology (1954). During this period, Mohri created works that include allegories of modern society, while boldly changing styles.
According to art critic Yoshiaki Tōno, Mohri was often saying “I think that sculpture is something in which idea and form are inseparably connected and move together within physical matter.*1” In another interview article, Mohri also mentioned that a sort of transformation is necessary for the material, and that the work is completed when this transformation and the artist’s intentions coincide successfully*2. Many of Mohri’s works use plaster, but sometimes stone or metal, as the material. While acknowledging the certainty of these materials as they are, when the plaster becomes more than just plaster and the metal becomes more than just metal, and they appear as an independent expression, it may be that they enable people to conceive and explore the world of his artworks.
On the other hand, to Mohri, the tools used to handle the materials are also important. “I think that in the past, when making things or working, humankind has always worked by taking advantage of the biggest, best and most advanced weapons. (…) When working with materials, the artistic intention is of course important, but the toughest battle is the physical part involved. So, I think that how to overcome that part is not unrelated to the tools used.*3” So said Mohri based on the sense of conquest he experienced when using a drill machine during the large-scale outdoor stone carving for the Symposium International de la Sculpture Moderne au Japon (International Symposium on Modern Sculpture in Japan) on Manazuru beach in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1963.
Text by Chikako Shakudo
*1 Yoshiaki Tōno, “Tomorrow’s Creators No.11: Silent Resistance,” Geijutsu Shinchō, vol.10, no.11, 1959.
*2 “Artist, Critic: Material, Anti-Painting, Sculpture,” Bijutsu Techō, no.172, 1960. Conversation between Bushiro Mohri and Yoshiaki Tōno.
*3 “The Underlying Currents of Contemporary Japanese Art, Post-War Art: The challenges of sculpture – A discussion of the movements of 1963,” Bijutsu Journal, no.45, 1963. Round-table discussion between Tamon Miki, Yasuo Mizui and Bushiro Mohri, moderated by Ichirō Hariu.
Image captions:
– The Unknown Political Prisoner, 1952, bronze, 58.5 x 9.0 x 9.0 cm, private collection. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Phoenix, 1951, plaster, paint, 55.0 x 16.5 x 15.5 cm, private collection. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Eye in the Hand, 1957, bronze, 66.0 x 21.5 x 14.5 cm, Kurobe City Art Museum. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Work, 1956, plaster, paint, approx. 80 cm high, private collection.
– Technology, 1954, plaster, colour, 55.0 x 16.5 x 15.5 cm, private collection. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Installation view from the Relationship between Mohri Bushiro and Kurobe exhibition (Kurobe City Art Museum, 2023). Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.