Toshimitsu Imaï

Toshimitsu Imaï (1928–2002) was born in Kyoto into a cultivated milieu and became the first

Japanese artist to join the Art Informel group, alongside Michel Tapié. Introduced by Sam Francis to critic Michel Tapié in 1955, he played a key role in bringing Informel to Japan and quickly established himself in postwar art across Europe and Asia, close to figures such as Leo Castelli, André Malraux, and Jean Fautrier.

His mature style is caracterized by dense impasto and inventive composition blending the innovations of European Informel with Japanese influences, resulting in a cosmopolitan language of form and texture.

As Michel Tapié wrote in 1961, Imaï’s work reveals a “pictorial alchemy” that frees itself from academic constraints while drawing on Japan’s aristocratic traditions, translating centuries of experience into a powerful, imaginative modern language.