Born in Tokyo, 1930
As a central member of the Kyushu-ha group, Ishibashi participated in its formation in 1956 alongside Takami Sakurai and Osamu Ochi. He remained with the group without interruption until its final exhibition in 1968.
Even after Sakurai and Ochi moved to the United States, Ishibashi stayed in Kyushu and continued to support the activities of Kyushu-ha.
A representative artist who combined experimental approaches with a certain populist sensibility, Ishibashi pursued the expressive potential of materials and a rigorously simple and direct formal language. From the 1980s onward, following his participation in Japan–Korea Contemporary Painting exhibitions, he actively deepened cultural exchange with Korea. Influenced by the monochrome painting characteristic of Korea, he continued to produce works that emphasized the inherent qualities and colors of materials.
Ishibashi also participated in the “Persona Exhibition,” the precursor to Kyushu-ha. The driving force behind the formation of Kyushu-ha as an organized group were four artists who had exhibited in the Nika Exhibition: Mamoru Yasuno, Takami Sakurai, Yasuyuki Ishibashi, and Osamu Ochi.
It was Ishibashi who first began using coal tar, a material that would become symbolic of Kyushu-ha.
“It’s inexpensive, has a mysterious luster, and a sense of volume. When I was walking along the road, I thought—this is it. When I went to get coal tar used for road construction, they asked me what I would use it for. When I said I would paint with it, they were quite surprised.”
(Excerpt from Avant-Garde in Motion 5, Nishinippon Shimbun)
Among the Kyushu-ha artists, who were deeply engaged in experimentation and artistic exploration, Ishibashi stood out as a particularly distinctive figure.
Shigetaro Yamauchi, also a member of Kyushu-ha, recalls:
“During the Kyushu-ha period, what can be described as his Dada-like explorations—his experimental works—along with those of several other artists, led the direction of Kyushu-ha’s artistic output.
Both during and after the Kyushu-ha period, there has been no other Kyushu-ha artist who continued to produce experimental works as persistently as Mr. Ishibashi.
Moreover, his wide-ranging experimental works were not mere spontaneous ideas, but were supported by solid technical skill and a strong sense of conviction.”
An anecdote from the Kyushu-ha period is also recorded in Avant-Garde in Motion 15 (Shunichiro Tashiro, Nishinippon Shimbun):
“Aiko Daikoku, upon seeing the strange work, was struck by a shock that seemed to dismantle her existing concept of art—‘Is anything allowed?’ she wondered.
The work in question was WORK, exhibited by Yasuyuki Ishibashi at the First ‘Kyushu-ha Exhibition’ (Ginza Gallery, Tokyo, 1959). He had painted a vertically elongated oval with asphalt pitch and affixed crumpled newspaper inside it.
Ishibashi intended to express the ‘weight of existence’ in this work, while Daikoku interpreted it as a ‘landscape of a toilet.’ Regardless of interpretation, for Daikoku—who had been bound by traditional forms and materials—it was a revelatory experience.”
Ishibashi remained a member of Kyushu-ha until the very end. A representative artist who embodied both experimentation and a certain vulgarity or earthiness, he also stayed in Kyushu after Sakurai and Ochi moved to the United States, supporting the group during its period of dissolution.
(From Kyushu-ha Taizen).